Isabella Thoburn College Lucknow

Isabella Thoburn College was founded by Miss Isabella Thoburn, an American missionary with the mission of serving the women of India with quality higher education imbued with strong value orientation.

This initiative started with the beginning of a small school consisting of six girls, on 18th April, 1870 in Lucknow. This school first grew into an intermediate college and in 1886, it was upgraded to a full fledged degree college for women. Establishing a women’s degree college in times when social constraints and restrictive practices kept women confined to the inner recesses of the household is indicative of the vision, strong commitment and dedication of the founder.

The guiding philosophy of Isabella Thoburn College is that education is more than passing examinations. The college tries to inculcate and imbibe the ten cardinal characteristics of the personality of Isabella Thoburn, first identified by Miss Ava Hunt in the original College Initiation service (later called Portal Service) in all its students. They are: Health, Honesty, Dependability, Scholarliness, Broadmindedness, Courtesy, Poise, Loyalty, Spirituality, and Service.

The Isabella Thoburn College is committed to be a comprehensive college with balanced attention to undergraduate, postgraduate and professional studies. The central goal of the college is to foster the life of the mind by providing sufficient resources to sustain an environment of scholarliness and excellence in learning, teaching, creativity and thereby empower women. The college aims at meeting the aspirations of women for meaningful roles in all spheres of life. The students are encouraged to achieve academic excellence and also a realization of their capabilities and experiences for service in the future.

The college now has a strength of approximately 3000 students. The campus and the institution’s ethos and culture have been witness to the process of the evolution of the modern Indian Woman.