Uttar Pradesh Technical University: Is it worth it?

To be very frank, this blog post has been written by one student of a well known technical universities of India, and the student don’t wanted to reveal his/her name with our readers. All the thoughts expressed in this post is of the student only. I simply provided the platform to share their opinion. Do let us know your opinion about this blog post in the form of comments.

Uttar Pradesh Technical University, also known as UPTU, was established in the year 2000 and since then it has produced lakhs of engineers everywhere. On an average, every A stream and B stream city of U.P. has 20 engineering colleges to its name. Some major cities like Lucknow, Kanpur and Noida have even more than that. Every year lakhs of students sit for the entrance exam of this university, often considered as one of the prestigious university among state technical universities. All science stream students whether Math or Biology, give the competitions at national level as well as state level. Those who are unable to make it to the best national colleges turn to the state government colleges and also, some of the good private engineering colleges affiliated to the university.

Sounds good, eh? But not all is rosy in this university.

Due to the lakhs of students, this university is simply unable to manage such a large number. U.P happens to be the largest state with the highest population in the country which is why we have the maximum number of students. After all, it has been fed into our minds that the only profession that’s respectable apart from medical sciences is engineering. And all of us know how tough it is to crack medical entrances. So, so many of us venture into engineering and when we aren’t able to get into NITs, we take admission in State Technical University thinking it will help us achieve our dreams and goals. They always said that it’s better than the deemed ones so like an ideal student, we spend our parents’ hard earned money, around 1.50 lakhs in one year’s fee (including hostel) and start going to college.

Oh! Talking about the fees.

If there’s some authority reading this, they’d say that they charge quite less than this but hey, which private engineering college affiliated to the university pays heed to that. One lakh for college fees and 60 thousands for hostel and you are finished, burning a hole in your pocket. I shouldn’t get into the matter of fees, that’s something we can’t do anything about I guess but there’s something about which we can do and that is bringing to light the truth, the actuality in the notions that so many people have so that future of lakhs of people can be saved, so that there aren’t any dumb engineers produced anymore.

On the first day itself, we get the shock of our lives when we find that even the teachers here can’t speak English, forget about the students. In a month’s time, you’ll know that even though as per the university’s norms the teacher should be at least M. Tech, the colleges hire fresh graduates due to lack of teachers and also to save their monetary compensation. Fresh graduates themselves studied a particular subject for six months so as per their knowledge; they aren’t paid more than 15k per month. Don’t be surprised, there are many who get even less, 10k. So tell me, why would a person actually put in extra effort to make students understand a concept he himself studies for six months, 3-4 years back? So yes, the 4 years of engineering are totally dependent on self study with no assistance, at all.

Try asking a numerical to a lecturer and there’ll be a time when he’ll shut you down or would just say, ‘Come and meet me after the lecture, stop wasting my time in such simple questions. I can’t stop the syllabus just because one moron doesn’t understand anything.’ But hey, Mr. Prof, you forgot even I paid those 1.50 lakhs so it’s my right to know that concept. Even I wish to get placed and do something worthwhile and you are being for teaching me, so you’ll have to tell me. But you don’t, right? And when I revolt, you fail me every damn paper.

So cool it, you’ve spoilt my internals, I think I’ll get the best out of my externals. After all, that wouldn’t involve any internal rivalry. But hope, that was lost ages back in UPTU. You do well but you don’t get what you expect. How could you score above 80 per cent in school and then couldn’t even manage a proper 60 in college? They will say we have lost track here since we stay away from home. We are more of involved in vodka and girls instead of books but the university forgot to check my copy. Yes, for three years continuous I sat for the carry over exam and every year they displayed the same marks. They didn’t pass me, not because I wasn’t studying but because, the copy wasn’t being checked.

Tell me one thing, how can a student score just 6 marks every year, even if he/she isn’t studying? It could deviate from 6 to 5 or 7 but not always 6. And then one day I witnessed another story, I saw a lab assistant checking university copies. I also heard about a Computer Science teacher checking the copies of Electrical. He was helpless, he couldn’t do anything, he had been assigned to do the same, he couldn’t say no, all he could do was take the help of the concerned department’s teachers but he had to correct it himself.

So that was the story of UPTU, the university that produces lakhs of illiterate engineers with no practical knowledge because practicals are more often than not, ignored here. Out of the stated practical and lab sessions, there are hardly any sessions conducted. Thankfully, the CS and IT have their laptops so they can do it themselves but what about core streams? They are totally helpless and then suffer even more humiliation when they somehow get placed in a firm that pays just 10,000 bucks to an engineer whose father spent 8 lakhs on this course. Now you know what you have to do before taking admission. Do a lot and lot and lot of research before entering any college, whether a state one or a deemed one.

Disclaimer: This is no outburst or frustration; this is a voice against the injustice happening with the students of UPTU. Mr. Vic Chancellor, please look into the matter. You owe a thousands of students their degree and knowledge. What if the same happened with your kid? Would you be able to live with the fact that your child passed every paper except for one single subject and lost his degree, not because of his own mistake but because his copies were never ever checked? Authorities please think about it and wash off all the racquet of the middlemen.

This post was written by a guest author who wishes to remain anonymous due to personal reasons.