University of Calcutta Campus Experience

The University of Calcutta (CU) has offered a four-year B.Tech course since 2015. The course is offered in 10 specializations (CSE, IT, OOE, ECE, IE, EE, PST, CT, CE, JFT) through various departments at CU, and admission is through the state joint entrance examination, WBJEE.

B.Tech subjects offered by the University of Calcutta, along with their departments.

Campuses

There are mainly 3 campuses for engineering – Rajabazar Campus, Technology Campus, Ballygunge Campus. First-year students from all the streams have to go to the Technology Campus, Salt Lake (JD-2, JD Block, Sector 3, Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700106) to attend their classes. In the first year departmental subjects are not taught rather first year can be somewhat thought of as a continuation of higher secondary with subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Engineering Mathematics, Basic Electrical Engineering, Communicative English, Engineering Mechanics, Basic Computer Science & Engineering, Basic Electronics and Engineering Drawing. From the second year onwards students move to their respective departments, spread across the 3 campuses. CSE, IT and OOE students have to stay in Technology Campus only while ECE, IE, EE, PST, CT and CE students have to shift to Rajabazar Campus (Rajabazar Science College, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Rajabazar, Machuabazar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700009) and JFT students have to shift to Ballygunge Campus (Ballygunge Science College, 35, Ballygunge Circular Rd, Ballygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal 700019).

Areas of Improvement

4-year B.Tech programme is relatively new in the University of Calcutta (since 2015), although B.Sc-B.Tech (3 years B.Tech after completing B.Sc) has been there for a while now. The prestigious University of Calcutta has a high overall reputation for excelling in various disciplines, however, it somehow lags when it comes to engineering. Probable reasons:

Administration:

HORRIBLE! The administration is unorganised and at times it is super slow. For small issues, you may have to visit 2 to 3 campuses back and forth all of which are located at least 6-7km from each other. The administration is unnecessarily overcomplicated due to a lack of proper communication between the campuses and the scapegoats are the students and not those who are working in the administration. Ask any senior B. Tech students from CU will say the same!

Campus life:

Little to none. If campus life is something that you are looking for then it is not the ideal college. The Technology Campus is dead; do not expect a vibrant campus environment if you choose CSE, IT or OOE. Rajabazar and Ballygunge Campuses are lively but still, you should not come with very high expectations. None of the campuses have a proper playground for hosting sports or cultural programmes and fests.

Relatively new:

The 4-year B.Tech programme is relatively new with the first batch passing out in 2019.

Faculty:

The professors are good but they are less in number and have to manage teaching the majority of the departmental subjects. Some of the guest lecturers are not up to the mark.

Curriculum:

Some of the subjects taught are outdated and are not industry-relevant now. You have to put in extra effort by yourself to learn industry-relevant skills.

Clubs and Fests:

There are very few active clubs for cultural and academic purposes. This is largely because the administration is non-cooperating and raising funds is very difficult. For fests, I can only ask you one question – Have you ever heard of a huge fest being held by the engineering departments of CU?

Placements:

Not so good, not so bad either. Placements may seem to be above the average however what do you expect from students with such high ranks in WBJEE? Certainly, the students hold much more potential. Please be very careful when people say that 4-year B.Tech students from CU have grabbed internships from Microsoft or other big companies. These companies do not come on-campus and students who get internships or jobs in such companies apply off-campus on their own.

Academics:

Although academics is one of those areas where the institute shines bright, yet I would say that it is overly focused on academics and not on the all-round development of a student. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” – the institute will certainly help you with your academics but it does not mean that it can help you become astute and shrewd. Sometimes, it is not the academic skills alone that get you hired but the industry competence and smartness.

Conclusion

Overall a lot of improvement is needed, although it is better than many of the engineering colleges in terms of academics. There were single and double-digit GATE rank holders and many students went abroad for higher studies and research purposes. Since 4-year B.Tech is relatively new it is bound to get better in the coming years.