STUDENTS vs VTU scam... PLEASE SHARE THIS! IT MAY JUST MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE. Dear VTU, Something stinks. It’s this whole VTU mess; it stinks the entire year, but gets particularly unbearable during exams and at the time of results. Here are the reasons. And I’m speaking not just for myself but for many students like me. There is a general air of dissatisfaction with the system and functioning of VTU. Every institution has its own set of problems and it’s fine as long as they are fixed. We wouldn’t have been so unhappy had there been any problem-addressing mechanism in VTU framework, but sadly there’s none. We students look at VTU as a distant, unreachable authority, one which is insensitive, blind and deaf to our problems; one which only knows how to impose, and not govern. So I am taking the Facebook route as a last-ditch attempt to get myself heard. I speak for all those who feel betrayed by VTU. The first thing that comes to mind since results have recently come out is the Rs 500 per subject I have had to pay to get a photocopy of my answer sheets, and the Rs 400 I will soon be paying for revaluation. Don’t we already pay you a miscellaneous fee which should cover all this? All that has to be done is mailing a soft copy. A token amount of up to Rs 100 is decent, but Rs 500 is outrageous. And to top it, we pay Rs 400 for poor correction. A small amount is returned to us if the difference between the revised and the original marks is more than some absurd margin. The fee shouldn’t be charged in the first place, and even if it is, full amount should be returned if there is a change of even one mark, as it is a failure on VTU’s part to check our papers accurately. I’m in my fifth semester, and still waiting for a refund after an increase of 22 marks in one of my second semester papers. What if I had not paid Rs 900 for that subject? It would have made a difference of around three per cent in my aggregate percentage, a huge loss in this era of cut-throat competition. I still wonder about the other subjects in which I could have got a deserved increase had I applied for revaluation, and the difference it could make to my future prospects. It’s an indirect money-for-marks scam being run in a somewhat legitimate way. You pay, you may score. What about those who can’t pay? What about those who are not rich enough to pay a few thousand bucks for these corrections every year? Isn’t this a discrimination against the economically poorer classes? The marks that we score are absurd. Sometimes we score well in the subjects we did really badly in, but that’s rare. Mostly we get bad marks in subjects we have done absolutely well in. It seems to me the only people getting proper marks are the mediocre or average ones. I wonder who checks our papers. Since there is zero transparency, there is no way I can find out. Most of us suspect the checking is done by people unrelated to the subject, from a very limited answer key. If there is any deviation from the key, in our style of writing, in our language or choice of words, or an alternate method to solve a problem, we probably lose the marks we deserve. The ideal scenario would be proper subject teachers with in-depth knowledge going through our papers, so we get the right marks the first time itself. I suggest a key of expected answers be issued by VTU so we can cross-check our answers with it. This will also help us decide whether to apply for revaluation or not. Right now, we just shoot in the dark and pray for the best. And what a waste of time, money and effort it often is. This is why result time sucks. Let me tell you why it sucks. Somehow, the VTU schedule lags behind all other universities in the country. Our exams begin at a time when colleges across the country are closed for long semester breaks. Since I am from a defence background, I have friends all over the country and some of them have three-month-long breaks. I have never once got a break that has lasted even one proper month in my entire college life. By the time VTU exams get over, my family, my friends in other cities, and my sibling here in Bangalore are busy with the re-opening of their colleges and schools after their winter and summer breaks. We never get to celebrate a relaxed new year just because we have one or two pending exams right after New Year’s, which is fine for a year, but it depresses you year after year. We don’t get to go on proper vacations. When our siblings have holidays, we don’t. This issue looks small when we think about internships. Because our holidays are delayed and of such short duration, we miss out big time on proper internships as they require a minimum of six weeks and what we get are three weeks. Most student programs and workshops are over by the time we are free of exams. These things are very crucial as a student missing out is not just a loss for us, but also for VTU. But does VTU even care about our results and placements? Or is late joining fines, revaluation fees and 75 per cent attendance is all it cares about? The problem can be easily fixed. All that has to be done is complete the semester early and shift back the entire year plan by one or two months. Classes are anyway so boring. There’s hardly any innovative or hands-on teaching. Maybe classes would be more enjoyable if we were not expected to, or at least given a choice whether or not to make notes. Teachers hurl unappetising information at us, and blackmail us with attendance as their weapon. The syllabus is outdated when compared to other universities. So is the teaching. Were we allowed to get laptops to classes, we would immediately Google what we’re learning about, look at pictures, videos, animations and learn better. A lot of people would misuse this freedom, but then that’s already happening. We still sit in class for the sake of attendance. We Whatsapp and text and Facebook in classes, we doodle, and pass chits, and talk, and click photos, make videos of the lecturer in classes, we sleep and day-dream in classes, so really it can’t get worse. What’s the point of attendance when lectures can be recorded and uploaded online, where students can view them whenever they find it convenient? We won’t mind a few industry trips, some guest lectures, a little bit of video-conferencing with other students and industry pioneers. Why doesn’t VTU implement the e-Vidya scheme? Another thing I don’t understand is making all students study common subjects in the first year. An ideal scenario would be to admit students in a common first year program without assigning the branches, letting them know subjects for a year and then letting them choose their branches. Alternately, VTU can do away with the common first year subjects and avoid wasting a precious year of our college life on unrelated topics. Branch basics can be taught from the beginning, which will give us more time to learn more relevant subjects and understand them better. We already wrote and scored in our entrances to join the college. A year of revision is not required. Have more electives We should have more electives in the course. There is a lot to learn but not everyone wants to learn the same things. Electives will ensure we expand our knowledge in the fields we are interested in, and that colleges do not churn out unemployable engineers. More co-curricular activities and foreign languages would be welcomed as well. The ones with the best marks are the toppers and they know stuff in theory, but jobs and success go to those who are smart – the ones who can apply their concepts. So help us hone our individual talents and become all-rounders rather than make us rote-learn and puke in the exams, and make total dummies of us. I didn’t want to write a letter like this and badmouth my university but I am forced to. I’d prefer if our colleges had complaint boxes. Even better would be student bodies in every college to represent and speak on our behalf. VTU could have a department solely for the purpose of listening to and taking action on our complaints. A good institution never runs well without feedback from its people. It may look like it is doing well, but the people will have a lot to complain about, given a chance. Colleges turn a deaf ear to our problems, and they may have learnt to do this either from VTU’s dictatorial style, or because they are helpless because the highest authority, VTU, cares the least. Our voices are suppressed at all times and we have no support when we have a problem; it’s just fear of repercussions for raising our voice. Lastly, I’ll say I don’t really have any hopes from VTU. I don’t think anything will come of writing this article. But I had to try, and I did. It’s up to VTU to decide what kind of image it wants to portray to its future students. If a survey is conducted in all colleges under VTU on each of the issues I raised, and anonymity is ensured, VTU will more or less have it in its face. Students are so scared of this authority that they don’t come out. This is the reason why I wouldn’t reveal my name either. All I can tell you is I scored in 90s in my boards, my aggregate till now is 78 per cent, but I have no clue what I am being taught or how I will apply it in the real world. Will VTU please take responsibility? For now, I’m just going to wait for my photocopy, pay up the revaluation fee, and try to get the marks I deserve. Silver lining? At least I’m blessed enough to be able to pay for this. Others aren’t. --An unfortunate VTU student
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 23:44:51 +0000
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