He guided the College for a period of 42 years, from 1878 to 1920. Keeping the expansion of the College in mind, the Principal, Rev Young, another committed British Missionary, shifted the College from Tirunelveli Town to the present 50 acre campus at Palayamkottai in 1928. But for the Rev Young’s farsightedness in shifting the college to this vast expanse of land, St. John’s College could not hav
e been what it is today with its numerous classrooms, halls of residence, spacious playgrounds, auditoriums, spacious library and adequate room for future expansion of its facilities. Rev GT Selwyn (1937 - 1945), an English Missionary was his successor. A significant addition to the college during the Rev Selwyn’s administration was a Worship Centre. Courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Logic were offered under Part III of the Intermediate Course. In 1943 Malayalam under Part II and Natural Science under Part III were included. The college was upgraded in 1945 and degree courses in Mathematics and Economics were offered under Part III. In 1955 university courses were re-organised with the introduction of the one-year pre-university course and the three year degree courses. The first Indian Principal, Mr J Vedasironmani (1946 - 1969) realized that it was the right time to embark on a programme on introduction of new disciplines at the graduate level. In 1957 the college secured affiliations in Physics and Chemistry as major subjects under Part III of B.Sc. Later, affiliation in Botany (1959) and Zoology (1963) BSc degree courses were obtained. In 1966, St John’s became an affiliated college of the Madurai University. The BA degree course in History and the MSc degree course in Mathematics were started in 1967. The BA degree course in English Literature was introduced in 1969. The MA degree course in English Literature was introduced in July 1971. A residential hostel for post-graduate women students was built in August 1973 with UGC assistance. The MA degree course in Economics was introduced in 1979, BCom in 1980 and MSc Botany in 1981. In 1992, MSc and MPhil in Zoology were introduced. In addition, unaided PGDCA & BSc Computer Science and BSc Electronics Evening Courses were started in 1991, 1992 and 1998 respectively. Since 1990, St. John’s has been an affiliated College of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.
