Sree Sankara College, Kalady was founded in the year 1954 by Swami Agamananda, a social reformer and a foresighted scholar of Sri Ramakrishna Advaita Ashram. The institution was established with a view to perpetuating the memory and doctrines of the great saint and philosopher, Adi Sankaracharya and to nurture his birth place as a cultural citadel. The foundation stone was laid on 28 August, 1953 by His Highness The Maharaja of Travancore in the presence of The Maharaja of Cochin and several other distinguished personalities. The Sree Sankara College Association was formed in July 1954.
The vision & mission of the organization was to establish a Centre of Higher Learning with two major objectives —dissemination of knowledge in tune with a university curriculum and fostering community development.
The institution was raised to the status of a First Grade College in 1956. It is affiliated to the Mahatma Gandhi University and is included under sec.2 (f) and 12 (B) of the UGC act, 1956.
In June 1960, the patronage of the college became vested in His Holiness The Jagadguru Sri Sri Sankaracharya Swamigal of Dakshinamnaya. Currently, Sri Sri Bharathi Theertha Mahaswamigal, of Sringeri Mutt, steers the administration through a Board of Directors with Sri. K. Anand as the Managing Director.
The college has done consistently well in Curricular and Cocurricular activities. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council ( NAAC ), a statutory body of the UGC has accredited the college B Grade with 2.82 CGPA on a four point scale. The Departments of Economics, Commerce, Sanskrit and Microbiology are approved Research Centres under the Mahatma Gandhi University.
