Hostel

Sophia College (autonomous) offers efficient, well-managed and clean hostel accommodation to about a hundred and five out-of-town students. The hostel is located on the first floor of the main building and the topmost floor of the rear extension. It is truly a home away from home, where each student receives personal attention and is encouraged not only to develop her academic skills but also to become a well-balanced and caring person. Participation in extra-curricular activities is expected, so that students realize that the learning process goes beyond academic study.

The aim of the hostel is to create an enlightened educational atmosphere, to encourage stable emotional growth in keeping with the goals and mission of the college. The hostel gives students an opportunity to meet peers from other regions and cultures.

The hostel is an integral part of the Sophia College (autonomous). It has a vibrant community, of over one hundred full-time students, from all parts of India and sometimes even abroad.

Admission to the hostel is competitive and there are particularly high expectations from resident students – especially with regard to attendance, academic performance and participation in the life of the college as a whole.

Continuation in the hostel is based on the appraisal of each resident on a yearly basis. Selection to the hostel is based on a personal interview of the prospective resident along with her parents/guardians.

Continuation in the hostel is based on the appraisal of each resident on a yearly basis. Selection to the hostel is based on a personal interview of the prospective resident along with her parents/guardians.

Life on campus
FY Hostel Admission

The College Library

Sophia M. K. TATA TRUST INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

The Sophia College Library boasts of a collection of over 70,000 books. It meets most demands of a modern information centre and also provides material and services to assist study. The facilities are especially for Sophia College students and staff, but visitors from other colleges are also welcome to use the resources available.

The library resources are as follows:

E-resources	Access to e-resources is provided to all users at the internet counter in the library.
Temporary /Overnight Reference Books	Usually one copy of every title is kept in demand for use in the library each day, at least until noon, after which the borrower may take the book overnight, and return it by 9 a.m. the following morning.
Non-fiction Books	Books which are not ‘in demand’ may be taken for 2 days, 3 days, 1 week or 2 weeks. Senior College & PG students can borrow 2 books at a time. Junior College students can borrow 1 book.
Periodicals & Project Reports	Professional subject-related journals/periodicals and Project Reports. You may refer to these only inside the library.
Reference Books	Art books, Atlases, Diction­aries, Encyclopaedias, Multi-volumes, etc. You may refer to these only inside the library.
Fiction library	Do visit the Fiction Section on: TUESDAYS 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. FRIDAYS 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. You can borrow only 1 book at a time, for a period of 2 weeks.

A significant feature of Sophia Library is that you as a user has open access to library cupboards in the general Reading Section. This means that you can browse books and then decide what you wish to pick up for reading or for home issue. Understandably then, it is important that you replace books in exactly the same location, after browsing. Maintaining the arrangement and order of books on cupboard shelves is necessary in the interests of other users.

The Library offers the following services for its users:

• Open Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) is available for users on the computer. Subject indexing of all articles from magazines, journals and newspapers, subscribed to by the library, is done, and users can have access to them.

• Photocopy Counter: Photocopying of select pages is available to all users. The Librarian reserves the right to refuse to permit the photocopying of certain reference books.

• Internet facility: Access to internet is available, at a nominal fee, for all students and staff.

Note:

Counter timings for photocopying and use of internet

MONDAY TO FRIDAY : 9 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. & 1 - 3.30 p.m.

SATURDAY : 9 a.m. - 12 noon.

• Reference Section: This section is for users who wish to use Reference Books. Ask any Library Attendant if you wish to access Reference Section cupboards.

• Information Services & Audio-Visual Section: A catalogue search based on name of author, title, subject, issue number, etc. is available using computers. Our audio-visual collection in the library may be accessed in this section.

Given below are some library rules to facilitate the best service can be given to all those who use this facility.

• 1. Library Timings

MONDAY TO FRIDAY : 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.

SATURDAY : 8.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.

The library is closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

• 2. Library Access

Students wearing a valid College Identity Card may enter and leave the library only from its main entrance, near Room 12 (on the 2nd floor of the Arts Building).

On entering the library, present your Library Card and keep your personal belongings (except your phone, cash and valuables) at the ‘Bag Counter’. Remember to collect your bag as you leave the library. All borrowed books are to be shown for inspection before you exit the library.

• 3. Issuing of Books:

3.1. Books are issued strictly in order of application. The Librarian may exercise discretion to limit the issuing of certain books as and when circumstances warrant it.
3.2. Books or periodicals may not be taken out of the library unless it has been registered against your name at the Circulation Counter.
3.3. When a book is issued, you are expected to examine it; report damages, if any, to the Library Attendant immediately, failing which you will be held responsible for any damage that may be detected later.
3.4. Books lost, damaged or defaced must be paid for by the reader on whose name they were issued. The value of the books will be assessed by the Librarian.
3.5. Overdue books: The fine per day after due date is Rupees Ten. NOTE: Working days, holidays and Sundays are included. In the case of ‘reserved’ books returned late, the penalty is a fine and a loss of library privileges for one week.

• 4. Code of Conduct:

All users of the library are expected to maintain silence especially in and around the Reading Room area and Reference Section of the library. Return newspapers and magazines to their stacks. Furniture must not be rearranged. The use of mobile phones to make and receive calls and other non-academic purposes, consumption of food and beverages are disallowed. Disregard of Library rules, indiscipline and misbehaviour will render students liable to be refused access to the Library.

• 5. Issuing of books to College Staff:

At a time, staff can borrow 10 general books for a month, 3 reference books for a week, 3 fiction books for a month and 3 magazines/journals for a week. These can be reissued if there is no demand. However, loose issues of Science Journals may be read only within the Library.

• 6. Sophia Ex-students and staff:

may avail of Library Membership for the purpose of reference work within the library. Photocopying facility of select pages is also permitted.

Note: 

For all matters pertaining to Sophia Library, the Librarian's decision is final. The librarian reserves the right to recall any book/journal at any time.

CANTEEN AND COFFEE SHOP

A centrally-located canteen serves staff and student needs. Veg¬etarian and non-vegetarian food is available at the College Canteen. The Canteen is a reasonably-priced, self-service canteen. Hot/Cold Beverage counters are provided in the canteen extension and near the central lawn.

You are requested to stand in queue when paying for your food tokens or collecting food/beverages. Also keep the canteen clean. Rearranging canteen furniture is only permitted for authorized class/club events. Dispose off waste appropriately in wet/dry bins explicitly kept for this purpose. Return plates, cups and cutlery in the tubs. You are encouraged to carry your own mug (for beverages) to help minimise the use of paper cups.

A Canteen Suggestion Box is kept in the canteen, for any student (or staff) to provide constructive suggestions, feedback and/or complaints. (Please keep photographic evidence of food that is contaminated or unhygienic.) Please also report such matters directly to the Canteen Manager at the time of your grievance.

COMPUTER CENTRE

(Sophia – M. K. Tata Communications Technology Centre)

The Computer Centre comprises four air-conditioned laboratories that are located on the 1^st Floor of the Arts Building (opposite the Audio Visual Room/above the canteen). These laboratories are equipped with 95 computers, 5 printers (B/W and colour), 2 scanners and 3 projectors. Access to internet facility is available at a nominal rate.

Ordinarily you may use Computer Laboratory 1, for your academic or personal work. Computer Laboratories are often used for I.T. Practical sessions (Labs 1&2) and the BMM department (Lab 4). It may also be booked in advance by faculty members - for special/guest lectures, exams, quality control data entry, online form-filling, or meetings; at such times, access to some laboratories will be restricted.

You are strongly advised to save your data on your pen drive, HDD, email, cloud etc. Carry your own ear plugs for the purpose of listening at the computer. The computers in all laboratories are formatted from time to time and its staff cannot be held responsible for loss of your data from the computer laboratories.

Check that you have taken your belongings (especially pen drive, print outs, phone, bag etc.) when you leave the computer laboratory. Please do not make or receive calls from inside the laboratories as they will disturb other users.

Sophia Credit Course-new

SCIENCE LABORATORY

On working days all laboratories will be open from 8 a.m. to 4.00p.m.

During Holidays laboratories may, if necessary, be kept open under the full responsibility of at least one member of the staff duly authorised by the Head of Department and ratified by the Vice-Principal of Science.

Once a year laboratories will be closed for not less than a fortnight, the actual dates to be settled by the Head of each Department in consultation with the Vice-Principal of Science..

Laboratory Facilities - Department of Zoology

The number of laboratories (UG, PG, category-wise physical chemistry lab, etc): 

The department has one spacious UG lab which can accommodate about 40 students in one session. 

 

Any other extensions/ rooms: There is also an adjoining preparation room.  

Any other facilities: The Suman Tulsiani Research Centre (STRC) has a cubicle for Ph.D. Research scholars.

 

Instrumentation facilities (Names and number of instruments in the laboratory):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laboratory instruments purchased under DBT Star College grant in 2018-19:
 

Serial no.	Name of the instrument	Description	Total number
1	Photoelectric colorimeter (Kanad Vidyut- Hans – 253)	UG Lab	01
2	pH  meter (Elico)	UG Lab	01
3	Olympus CX 21i Trino Microscope with Mount on USB Live Image Camera- 5 Megapixel with C Mount adaptor and software.	UG Lab	01
4.	LCD Projector SONY VPL-EX450	UG Lab	01
5.	Conductivity Meter (Equiptronics EQ-660B)	UG Lab

 

 

Information regarding how laboratory waste is managed/discarded/ treated: 

We do not have any hazardous material and hence there is no specific provision required. 
 
 

Laboratory Facilities - Department of Life Sciences

The Department of Life Sciences at Sophia College boasts of an undergraduate life sciences laboratory as well as two well equipped postgraduate life sciences laboratories. 

Third Floor Lab Facility 

Laboratory facility of the Life Science Department is on the third floor of the Science Building. The lab is utilized for practical classes by both the undergraduate and postgraduate students. The lab is well equipped for occupancy of nearly 50 students. The lab is enabled with the audio-visual facility in order to provide improved student engagement. In context to the available instruments, the lab has advanced weighing balance, pH meter, centrifuge, incubators, colorimeters and spectrophotometers. Intricate instruments such as advanced microscopes (example stereo dissecting microscope, fluorescence microscope, inverted microscope and pen-type microscope), nucleic acid and protein electrophoresis units are available. Additionally, in lab water distillation units and autoclaves are available for use. Workstations are equipped with proper gas channels for performing microbiological related work. The lab is self contained with molecular grade chemicals and reagents properly stored and refrigerated as per manufacture guidelines.

Zebrafish facility

The two and half floor of the science building is the zebrafish facility that is temperature controlled and holds a single zebrafish unit. The unit consists of 10litre fish tanks, 3.5litre and 1.5litre that  can hold adult zebrafish and fish larvae. The room has overhead water storage tanks and artemia hatchery. Fish breeding and behavior studies are conducted in this room. 

 

Behavioral Lab Facility 

Lab between the 3rd and the 4th floor 3 and a half lab is a Behavioral lab used for various Behavioral studies.  

• This is a fully air-conditioned facility. 
• This lab is primarily used for Culturing wild type and transgenic drosophila flies. The facility is also used to conduct behavioral experiments on other model organisms. 
• The lab is subdivided into three main divisions. 
• There is a space behind the staircase which is used to store chemicals, glassware and various other miscellaneous objects.
• There are few work stations built which are utilized to perform experiments as well as to store the cultures of Drosophila. 
• It also contains two separate cubicles for conducting behavioral studies on model organisms. 
• The lab is a self-contained facility with a microscope and sink for wet and dry lab work. 

 

 

Suman Tulsiani Research Center

This facility also houses a  well-equipped postgraduate life sciences laboratory. It includes a double door cell culture laboratory and a molecular biology laboratory, both of which are fully and constantly air conditioned. The cell culture laboratory comprises of a laminar airflow biosafety cabinet (Microfilt, India), 2 CO2 incubators (Thermo Fischer Scientific), an electronic weighing balance (Shimadzu), a centrifuge machine (Remi) and a refrigerator (LG). The molecular biology laboratory has the following equipment: a laminar airflow biosafety cabinet (Microfilt, India), 2 BOD incubators (Labline), 4 ZEISS microscopes including an inverted phase contrast microscope, 2 stereo microscopes (one with an added fluorescent attachment) and a fluorescence microscope with a photographic attachment, PCR thermal cycler (MJ Research) and a real time PCR machine with Syber Green Chemistry (Applied Biosystems), Gel documentation system (UVP) along with horizontal gel apparatus (Technosource, India), Zebrafish stand-alone facility along with microinjector and puller (for capillaries used in microinjection), -20 deep freezer (Vestfrost) and -80ͦ C deep freezer (Sanyo), ELISA reader as well as uv-vis spectrophotometer, refrigerated tabletop cold centrifuge as well as microfuge, double distillation unit, electronic weighing balance, pH meter, rocking platform shaker, water bath, dry block and microwave. Most of these equipments have been purchased through extramural project funding from DBT, UGC, LTMT, BRNS as well as DST-FIST grants. Besides, other Institutional Facilities include library facilities, water, electricity, computers and internet.

 

Laboratory Facilities - Department of Physics

Our Physics laboratory is equipped with modern equipment to help the students to learn the basic concepts of Physics with experiments. It is a place where students learn to practice the activities – asking questions, performing procedure, collecting data, analyzing data, answering questions and thinking new questions to explore more. 

The lab is quite spacious and very well ventilated to ensure proper availability of light in it. Physics laboratory along with dark room can accommodate 50 students conducting experiments in group of 03 depending on the experiments at hand.

Our students get a virtual experience of the experiments with the help of LCD projector (Star College scheme) with Departmental laptop (RUSA) facilities which enhances their understanding in the subject.

The laboratory is very well equipped with instruments like He – Ne LASER beam (Star college), Four Probe method (Resistivity of Semiconductor) (Star college), Newton’s ring apparatus, Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (Star college) etc.

Students can measure angle of prism, angle of minimum deviation and refractive index of a material which are attractive and very interactive.

 

 

 

 

Laboratory Facilities - Department of Chemistry

 

The Department of Chemistry has 3 UG labs – 2 wet labs(one each on the first floor and ground floor), a balance room (now used as analytical lab) and 1 physical lab, 2 PG labs – 1 wet lab(previously balance room) and 1 dry lab and  Suman Tulsiani Staff Research lab (4^th floor Science building).

The following is the list of the instruments that the labs have:

List of Instruments in Chemistry Laboratory (2018-19)

SY and TY Lab (Ground Floor)

 

FY Lab (First floor)

 

 

 

 

MSc Lab (First floor)

 

Research Lab (Fourth floor)

 

Waste treatment 

All the Organic derivatives prepared by the students in the lab are recrystallized and given to the students for Organic spotting/Estimation/derivatization/other experiments.

Broken glassware are collected in a separate bin and sent for recycling 

If only the tip of the burette is broken we get it mended and use again

All qualitative experiments performed in the lab are performed at microscale level. 

Both the ground floor and first floor main labs are equipped with fumehood facility. Whenever any experiment which involves evolution of harmful gasses is carried out in the fumehood

 

PHYSICS LAB

MICROBIOLOGY LAB

Laboratory Facilities - Department of Biochemistry

 

S. No.	Spaces	Number	Location	Remarks
1.	Post graduate Laboratory for five students	One	First floor science building	Total area is about 11.3 square meters
2.	Small Research laboratory	One	First floor science building
3.	Staff room	One	First floor science building
4.	Store room	One	First floor Mezzanine
5.	Corridor outside the research laboratory	One	First floor science building	For keeping few equipment
6.	Chemistry department laboratory shared twice a week for third year UG students( 20 students per batch)	One	Ground Floor	Total area is about 113.4 square meters
S.No.	Class	Equipment, instruments and electronic items		Remarks
1.	Undergraduate	Colorimeter CL – 63(Elico), Digital Colorimeter – Hans 253, Digital Colorimeter – Hans 293, Electronic balance      (Contech) , Student microscope, Horizontal electrophoresis unit, Electronic Balance(Citizon), Analytical balance( Shimadzu), pH meter(Equiptronics) Refrigerator (Samsung), Magnetic Stirrer( Remi),Vortex mixer(Remi), Water distillation unit		All the equipment, instruments and electronic items listed have been purchased under: UGC grant DST -FIST grant DBT Star College Scheme   The list is indicative and not detailed and exhaustive one. Though the items have been classified with class wise allocation, they are used by both UG and PG students.
2.	Post graduate	Colorimeter CL - 157 (Elico),Colorimeter( Systronix)Constant Temperature bath (Microtech), Electronic Balance (Contech), Epifuge (Remi), Electrophoresis- horizontal submerged (Genei), Homogenizer (Remi motors), Incubator (Tempo), Oven (Expo), pH Meter (Toshniwal), Conductivity meter (Equiptronics), Table Top centrifuge, Refrigerator (Samsung), Microplate reader( Thermoscientific), Cold centrifuge(Plastocraft),Colorimeter ( Systronix) , Digital Colorimeter – Hans 291,Spectrophotometer (Systronics), Microscope( Olympus), Vertical electrophoresis unit, , Centrifuge (Remi), Magnetic stirrer (Remi),
3.	UG&PG	Desktop computer LG with wifi connection, Printer HP1020, Dell laptop, LCD Projector VPL EX450

Book shop / Facilitating Centre

The College Bookshop caters to the multiple needs of all students and staff of Sophia College (autonomous) and our campus institutions. It was established to serve our requirements on campus. You are encouraged to purchase Textbooks, Reference materials, study materials/notes, stationery from the bookshop. Prescribed Textbooks for all Junior College courses, which are sanctioned and published by Balbharati (Maharashtra State Textbook Bureau), Pune are available. For some courses there are journals and workbooks also.

Photocopy Counters

Photocopy Counters are provided for all students and staff. They are located in the College Library, Sophia Andersson Annexe and near the central lawn. Learner resources for Degree college students are available at the counter in Sophia Andersson Annexe. Learner resources for Junior College are available at the counter near the central lawn/Sports Club.