St.Teresa's College, a pioneering institution in the field of Higher Education in India, was established on 15th June in the year 1925, as the first Women's College of the erstwhile Cochin State and the second in the whole of Kerala by the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of St.Teresa. It started functioning in one of the large halls of St.Teresa's High School with Sr.Beatrice as its first Principal and Mother Veronica as the first Manager and a student strength of just 41. While high academic standards were maintained in the college from the very start, students were also taught the value and dignity of labour, good social relationship and above all, lasting spiritual values through regular moral and religious instruction classes. In the beginning, the College was a second grade Arts College affiliated to the Madras University and offered the Intermediate Course with Ancient History, Modern History and Logic under Part Ill. The construction of a separate building for the College was completed in 1926 and the classes were shifted from the High School to this new building the same year. The first batch of students appeared for the University examination in 1927 and came out with excellent results. Fully satisfied by the high standards maintained by St.Teresa's College, the Madras University was pleased to upgrade the College to the status of a First Grade College in 1927.
St.Teresa's college is situated in the heart of Kochi city in two different locations separated by a distance of roughly half a kilometre. The Arts Block is on the Park Avenue road occupying two acres and 65 cents. The Science Block on T.D road is situated in an area of one acre and 34 cents. Since the campus area is limited, the college has adopted a vertical mode of expansion. Each block has many buildings with adequate number of classrooms for different programmes offered by the college. Within this limited space, the college has constructed a multi-purpose indoor stadium in the Science Block in 2003-04 named 'Teresian Gym Plaza-75'. It doubles up as a common place for the students and faculty for holding seminars, public functions and cultural programmes. It can also be conveniently converted into a floor for indoor games
Hostel Facility
In campus residence facilities are provided by the college. There are three main hostels, one in the main block and the other two in the Science Block. The atmosphere in these residence halls gives a feeling of 'home away from home'. The application to these hostels may be given on the day of the admission itself.