The student community studying at Dr.SNS Rajalakshmi College of Arts and Science (Autonomous) is a highly diversified set of students in terms of rural nature, first generation learning, social and cultural values, economic back ground and also they possess diversified talents, potentials learning ability. Hence, it has become essential to nurture and sharpen the talents of every student and to offer them a broad based education with deep knowledge in the chosen discipline and broad general education in other area based on their needs and aspirations.

Education is redefined in the college, based on the current global trends in territory education. The college uplifts the student community by offering a global, holistic, broad-based education, through Design Thinking Approach. We are the pioneers in designing, developing and implementing the Curriculum prepared for all the programmes based on the Design Thinking Approach.

Design Thinking is basically a linear or non-linear process involving five different steps: (i) Emphathise (ii) Define (iii) Ideate (iv) Prototype and (v) Test. At Dr. SNS Rajalakshmi College of Arts and Science, the Design Thinking approach is used the preparation of Curriculum, the Teaching-Learning process and also in the Assessment. In education, the empathizing steps of Design Thinking play an important role.

While preparing the need based curriculum, to fulfill the empathizing part, the current needs of the industries were assessed so that the curriculum thus developed will fill up the gap between Industry and Academia and hence students' employment requirement will be met. After preparing the Curriculum, it is tested by delivering the same to students.

In the Teaching-Learning process, the design thinking approach is enforced by empathizing the students on their Learning patterns so that appropriate teaching pedagogies, methods are defined. An active learning is promoted by spreading considerable amount of time in fields and industries for the benefit of experience in the learning. Also, higher order learning is promoted.

On the other hand, the assessment of courses by empathizing with the course outcomes defined for each course. The assessment is further made by setting questions in higher order levels using the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

The Broad-Based Education offered in the college based on the Design Thinking approach addresses the individual student’s academic excellence in knowledge and skills, research and analysis, personality development, entrepreneurship and leadership, innovation and creativity, universal values and ethics, excellence in sports, multiple skill development for global competence, music, dance, drama, craft and fine arts through clubs and competitions as well as social responsibility throughout-reach programmes.

In the College, Further the knowledge empowerment and academic excellence is accomplished by offering Outcome-Based World Class Curriculum under Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS). Deep education in the respective discipline is promoted by offering courses under Discipline-Centric Core, Discipline-Centric Electives, and Value added courses in cutting edge technologies. Further, internship, industrial visit and field projects are made mandatory for the students.

The college has a well structured curriculum that also provides general education through Cluster Core and Elective, Inter-Disciplinary (Open) Electives, Foundation Courses, Extra Curricular and Extension Activities, Sports and Culturals, Social responsibilities to inculcate universal values, ethics, moral, discipline which would stay with them throughout their life. The teaching learning process in the college enables vertical and horizontal mobility in the learning among the students. The programme is designed in such a way that students may explore different courses and develop cross-disciplinary communications, out of box thinking, problem solving, decision making, multitude approaches to integrate Mathematics and Science, Commerce and Arts. The students learn in mixed groups, which facilitate more knowledge sharing and confidence building.

The college practices learner-centric teaching pedagogies and Learning Management System (LMS), which give the students a deep knowledge in the discipline through experiential and participatory and contributory learning methods. They are (i) Class rooms / laboratory learning (ii) Learning in the field and industry (iii) Field-based experiential learning, (iv) Project-based learning, (v) Research-based learning and (vi) Online learning. The students are free to choose courses of their choice for enriching their skills through integrated skill development programmes (Soft Skill, Technical Skill, and Professional Skill).

The students are given Professional Training in the specific areas, namely, Professional Accounting, Financial Services, Company Secretaryship, Cost and Management Account, IBM Certification, CISCO Certified Network Associate Certification, Oracle Certified Associateship and few others.

Through Broad Based Education, the students develop themselves into a well-rounded individuals, viz., mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, and culturally through the general education and the skills developed through, various clubs such as Art and Craft, Fine Arts, Disaster Management, Health and Hygienic, Quiz, Heritage, Innovation and Creativity, Music and Dance also trained in yoga and sports to stay calm, relaxed and fit and to achieve sports excellence by making use of excellent indoor and outdoor sports facilities of the college.

Online Learning is made using e-resources & videos, e-Tutorial: NPTEL, SWAYAM, etc. Also, Extra Credits are awarded on completion of the MOOC courses by transferring the credits. It leads to employment in the relevant core and product companies.

The students are made more employable in top-notch multinational companies by re-skilling and upskilling. Also, the Entrepreneurship Development Cell and Strategic Business Development Cell guide them to become young entrepreneurs. The Software Development Cell of the college promotes the code writing skills of the students of Computer Studies. Not only the college nurtures the acquisition and development of these skills, but also does so in an age-appropriate manner resulting in an optimal learning balance through the holistic approach.