Asia’s largest technical university, does not produce Engineers actually

The topic might seem strange but it is a hard core fact. Yes, UPTU (Uttar Pradesh Technical University) is Asia’a largest technical university and the irony for me in this piece of information is that I don’t find it producing engineers. (This is completely a personal opinion.) Well, the question is why do I say this ??
Lets start from the very basic. Each year around 50,000 engineers graduate from this university through various colleges. If I make a survey I know that not more than 10% will be knowing the meaning of an engineer. To be very true even I didn’t know. And to put up some definition here I had to turn upto wikipedia to find out who an engineer is. This is what it said :” Engineers use creativity, technology, and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems.” To go into the detail you can see this.
I will use just the basic first line. Engineer uses CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY and SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE . Wonder how many of those graduating each year use that.
Infact the format of the university is such that students actually don’t need to learn those skills at all to become an engineer. The curriculum says to pass in atleast 6 subjects out of 10 (passing marks being only 30%) in the end semester exams. Those are counted as external marks which comprise of only a meagre 50% of the total marks. I have some interesting data up my sleeve.
Figure this first point out now, a private institution topper scores 499 out of 500 in the internal exams but only 325 out of the external 500. The second topper gets 498 internal and 290 external. Isn’t that strange. A student who knows almost 100 % when appearing in the internal exams knows only 65% of the external exam paper, the second one getting not even 60%. I fail to get an answer or I should say I won’t say it here. Result : 80% marks allover.
Figure this second point out. A student rarely attends classes in the college. Sometimes passes in the internal exams, gets average internal marks and manages to score 50% in the external exams. Result : 65-70% marks allover.
The third point now. A student never attends classes, never or rarely passes in the internal exams, manages to pass in the external examination and keeps passing for the year and goes through his B.Tech in the same manner. Result : 50 to 60 % marks allover.
What came to me after studying all these cases was that you do need to require any technical knowledge in order to top, pass or scrap through your B.Tech process. At the end of four years all three guyz have almost nill knowledge and have scored varying marks. For the outside world, the topper was the best kid and no prizes for guessing who the worst guy was.
The only thing I understood was that barring 5-10% of the students rest all are either pursuing a course where you need to have no knowledge of your subject. Infact mugging up is sufficent or I should say more than enough for any student to land in any of the three candidates listed above’s place. The amount of mugging skills you have, is the amount of external marks you get. For internals there are various criterion which I cannot or rather should not say here.
No, I dont say that its the fault of a single person. The students are responsible for it no doubt but the main culprit is the university and the pattern which it follows. Most students have made it a habit to open their books a week before the exams or maybe even later and then scrap through the exams. And why should they study, if no one cares what they know. Infosys, the dream job for many people here in the UPTU, asks not a single technical question in its written test or even the interview. So why should I waste time in studying?? And once you have a job in your hand, who cares how did you complete your B.Tech or what subjects you studied. So thats another reason for what I have been discussing.
All in all there are many reasons why students have no knowledge or no skills that an engineer should have as compared to students from other reputed institutes (keeping in mind that at other places too I don’t count the entire crowd, but still a mojority).
Its time we should raise the matter with the university people to do something about this, change the curriculum and change the way marks are secured in the unversity. Or on the other hand do nothing and just keep on producing labourers from the university who do not know what they have or should be doing other than following the orders of others. And the greatest part is that they have an engineer title placed on their empty heads which only raises their matrimony value.
I dont know if I have gone in some worng direction at some places but the essence of the topic must have been achieved.