Save ITBHU

"Greetings,
Recently, I read a news in TOI about the 6 new IITs being preferred over IT BHU. Only low rank holders are opting for BHU. Well, that is pretty normal and I would have also opted for one of the IITs if I were to take the admission.

Why?

- I don't know anything about IT BHU that makes it different from other institutes that admit students through JEE.
- The IT BHU section in the JEE brochure talks more about the trivial details than giving information about the IT BHU's vantage points over the the other Institutes that participate in the admission process.
- It doesn't answer all the questions that come to mind of the students when they opt for a college during the JEE counseling.
- It doesn't talk about IT BHU alumni who have made a difference.
- It doesn't talk about the opportunities a student will get if he opts for IT BHU.
- It doesn't talk about the state of the art facilities, a student will get if he/she joints IT. Actually, we have none so the purpose of mentioning this point is self defeated.
- It doesn't talk about how joining IT would give it's students a head start in their career.

In reality we don't have much to talk about except the placements. Students are not motivated; they keep cribbing; they are in low spirits.

The reasons?? Well there are many
- The curriculum is not interesting. Its a lot theoretical, with very little scope of doing simultaneous practical projects. That is the reason why many ITians go to the IITs for summer internship projects.
- There is lack of facilities and funds for the labs.
- There are no collaborations with research labs and universities.

The only reason for the good placements has been that BHU's linkage with JEE. With the coming of the 6 new IITs, only the low rank holders will join BHU.(I assume BHU will now open around rank 3500 ) This change is surely going to affect the reputation of our Institute. It may happen that no big shot companies will come to the college campus for recruiting.

What can be done?
A lot. Believe me, we can bring the change.
- First of all, there should be common platform where representatives of administration, alumni and students can come together and discuss different things. The administration should give an ear to the things being discussed. So, please register @ http://www.itbhuglobal.org/
- Students should come up and speak out if they are facing any difficulty. It can be about lack of funds or lack of any facility or anything.
- The curriculum should be redesigned to introduce more electives so that students have more choices.Also there should be more opportunities of carrying out research projects .
- Take the example of ISB. It has reserved a place among the top B schools in India in no time. It has made so much progress that people have started to prefer ISB to IIM A. The reason behind this trend is that ISB have done so much to maintain the aura of exclusivity of the Institute. If we can do something similar ISB has done, then there is no doubt that we shall be one of the best engineering colleges in India and who knows JEE toppers might want to join IT BHU instead of joining any other IIT. Our alums are at very prestigious positions and we can come together to make our Institute the best in terms of facilities; in terms of benefits; in terms of academics; in terms of anything that comes to the mind of the students when they opt for a college during the JEE counseling.
- We can collaborate with research labs, universities (if not foreign then at least with Indian big shots such as IITs,IISc, TIFR, ISI ).
- We can sponsor students for filing patents or publishing papers.
- We can donate different software, which students can't afford on their own, to the different department labs.
- All the obsolete courses should be removed from the curriculum.
(There is much more to do)

Something is sought after if it is exclusive.
I am ending this article with a hope that next year IT would come up as a strong contender among the choices of Institutes that participate in JEE. I hope we shall do something about it.

This is part of a mail by an alumnus in ITBHU yahoo groups. I am putting this material in general public to aware the ITians who are not part of these group. This message is really a matter of introspection for ITBHU to stand in the race of best engineering colleges in India.