Department Profile

The Department of Botany at the Union Christian College is one of the leading departments dedicated to teaching and research with specialization in Biotechnology. The department consists of 7 faculty supported by 4 administrative staff including a gardener and herbarium keeper. The Department offers undergraduate programme in Botany with Horticulture and Nursery management as elective. The department also offers add-on courses in Flower arrangement, Ornaments and Jewelries from plant products, and Cosmetics from Botanicals.

For MSc. course in Botany, the major electives is Biotechnology. The Department have a Library, with a large collection of current periodicals and over 200 books and  internet and multimedia presentation facilities.  The department also houses a herbarium with 3500 specimens and maintains a botanical garden named in memory of the founder professor  T. C. Joseph as T. C. Joseph Botanical Garden and an Arboretum maintained in memory of late professor Dr. O.M. Mathen.

The Department is an approved research centre of Mahatma Gandhi University and there are four research supervisors. The major areas of research are Plant Biotechnology, Plantation Technology, Ecology, Bio-systematics, Ethnobotany and Plant-Microbe Interaction.

The department was established in 1953 under the University of Travancore and the Post Graduate course started in 1965. The Department was recognized as a research centre by the University of Kerala in 1979 and when Mahatma Gandhi University  was established, the centre was then registered under MGU in 1983.