Our inception dates back to 1963 – the founding of the College – and over the years, the Department has evolved in leaps and bounds; thanks to the various Mathematical stalwarts who served not only as professors but also as friends, philosophers, and guides to the students of this elite institution. Notable among them were Prof. Ramaswamy, Prof. B. A. D’Souza, Prof. Moodbidri, Prof. Muthu, and Dr. Ryan Fernandes.

Today, the rich legacy is carried forward by highly efficient faculties, many of whom are products of the College itself.

The Mathematics Department at St. Xavier’s College has maintained the unique tradition of teaching with love and care – thanks to the number of students that have constantly risen over the years and still rising.

The Department is a recipient of the grant under the DBT Star College Scheme awarded to the college by ‘Department of Biotechnology, Government of India’ in 2021.

The Department provides remedial coaching for slow learners as well as conducts summer courses in certain mathematical areas of common interest. It trains the students to answer various competitive examinations including coaching the students for GU-ART (Goa University Admission Ranking Test) and various other M.Sc. Entrance Examinations in the subject of mathematics. Yet another feature of the department is the commemoration of National Mathematics Day every year under which Workshops/ Seminars/ Quiz competitions are conducted.

Our faculty members offer Statistical data consultancy and research methodology consultancy for students and faculty members of the college and other colleges to complete their research work. Under the DBT Star College Scheme, the Department has conducted various workshops/ Faculty Enrichment Programmes/ Guest lectures/ Study tours as well as procured two Smart Boards and purchased the software “MATLAB”.
The Department publishes a newsletter “Abacus”.

With B.Sc. Honours in Mathematics, students can pursue their Post-Graduation in Mathematics, Statistics, Industrial Mathematics, Operations Research, Actuarial Science, Data Analysis and further join research institutions to pursue research in Mathematics. Students can also opt for B.Ed, which will qualify them to enter the teaching field. Careers include data science, machine learning, business analyst, blockchain developer, forecasting by Mathematical modelling, Biostatistics, Banker, Actuary, Economist, Psychometrician, etc. Students can also pursue their Master’s in Business Administration.

The study of Mathematics provides an edge to students to qualify in competitive examinations on account of their analytical reasoning and numerical skills developed during their study.

Ms. Riya Pednekar
T.Y.B.Sc,  2024-25

There is a common idea of what mathematics is: a subject of equations, calculations, and correct answers. It is not wrong exactly, but it is incomplete in the way that describing music as organised sound is incomplete. What mathematics actually is, at its core, is the study of structure, of why things must be the way they are, and what follows when they are. The difficulty is not arithmetic. It is learning to think in a way where nothing is assumed without justification, where a single question can open into years of work, and where understanding one thing deeply is worth far more than knowing many things loosely. That is what I did not know when I first encountered the Department of Mathematics at St. Xavier’s College, and it is what the department quietly, persistently taught me.

What made that possible is how genuinely passionate the faculty are about the subject. There is a difference between a teacher who knows mathematics and one who feels it, and at Xavier’s the latter was the norm. We have all had that moment in a mathematics class when something clicks, when the fog lifts and what seemed impossibly abstract suddenly makes complete sense. The faculty at Xavier’s had a particular gift for engineering those moments. I remember instances when something seemingly impenetrable became clear simply because a professor asked us to think about it geometrically, a shift in perspective that felt almost like cheating until you realised that was exactly the point. Mathematics has many doors into the same room, and good teachers know which one to open for which student. The department understood this not just inside the classroom but beyond it, pushing us outward through seminars, summer programs, and events like Mathematics Day as reminders that mathematics lives in the conversations and curiosities of people who have devoted their lives to it.

I did not fully understand what I was receiving while I was there. What I know now, having moved further into the subject, is that the Department of Mathematics at St. Xavier’s is exceptional in a specific way: its faculty are research-inclined, and that changes everything about how mathematics is taught. That kind of teaching does something quietly over three years. It builds in you the confidence to sit with a hard problem and trust that you will find a way through. We leave not with answers, but with the hunger to keep asking.