The department became an approved Research Centre of Mahatma Gandhi University in 1994 with five of its faculty members and five from other colleges as approved research guides. So far 20  Ph.D.s have rolled out from the department and currently 17 scholars are pursuing their Ph.D. programmes. Advanced research in the fields such as Arachnology, Neurobiology of Ageing, Ant Taxonomy,  Ichthyotaxonomy, Biodiversity and Endocrinology are the thrust areas of research. The Division of Arachnology is the only centre in south India devoted exclusively for the research on spiders and their kin.