VTU completes its semester in three months, students angry

Bengaluru: Engineering students have expressed outrage that the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has completed the semester in just three months and is about to conduct the examination. There are 208 engineering colleges under VTU and 2.65 lakh students are getting technical education.

Second, fourth and sixth semesters started on May 23. As a rule the duration of teaching should be at least 4 months. However, the exam schedule (beginning on September 17) was published before 70% of the lessons were completed.

A four-year engineering degree course consists of skill, technical and intellectual subjects. Although the university says that some of them have been cut, there is no proper information for the faculty and students. The faculty without teaching the syllabus is completing the curriculum.

In many colleges, classes are held from 7 am to 5 pm. Taking the result as prestige, some colleges are conducting online classes from 6.30 pm to 11 pm. Students are struggling with an average of seven papers, two practicals, assignments and internals in three months. The cry of most of the students is that the professors are trying to complete the subject matter without giving any break.

Struggle in degree colleges too

Due to the hasty implementation of the new National Education Policy in the state's degree colleges without any preparation, the semesters could not be completed on time. Colleges, which took longer for the first semester, are under pressure to complete the second semester in a short period of time.

First year classes are being held from September 1 in many universities before the end of the second semester. This has doubled the number of first year students. New students are struggling without rooms.

More than 200 students are packed in one room. RK Manjunath, a student of Shimoga Sahyadri College, says that the old students have not gone for the next academic year, so they have not got admission in the hostels either. Academic and examination timings are fixed according to AICTE. Lessons are also completed. There is no substance in the accusations of the students, said Prof Rangaswamy, Registrar (Evaluation), VTU.