The College was established in 1949 and pursues excellence upholding the far-sighted vision of our revered founder, Servant of God Archbishop Mar Ivanios. The college currently offers 18 Under Graduate degree programmes and 9 postgraduate programmes. Upholding academic excellence, the Institution has established six research centres. Initially, a college affiliated with the erstwhile University of Travancore, the college has been affiliated with the University of Kerala since 1957. Mar Ivanios College is the first institution in the University of Kerala to receive accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in 1999. The college was also the first to be re-assessed and re-accredited with an "A" grade by NAAC in 2004. In 2011 the college was re-assessed by the NAAC peer team as part of the third cycle of the re-accreditation process with an "A" grade. Mar Ivanios College became the first private college affiliated with the University of Kerala to receive the status of College with Potential for Excellence (CPE) from the UGC. The college has been conferred Autonomy status by the UGC since June 2014. In 2019 the college underwent the 4^th cycle of the re-assessment process by NAAC to obtain an "A⁺" grade. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked the college at 36^th, 29^th, 48^th, 44th, and 50^th positions in the NIRF Rankings (for Arts & Science Colleges) for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, respectively. In 2019, the college was conferred the status of a UGC-Paramarsh Mentor College.