BANGALORE: A six-month internship is now mandatory for students pursuing technical and engineering courses at the Visvesvaraya Technological University.
This decision was taken at a recent executive council meeting. In the third semester of MTech, students must intern in an industry related to their course.
The university offers MTech in 32 branches.
Dr H Maheshappa, vice-chancellor, said, “Medical, para-medical and even some general degree courses insist on internships. We did not have the practice in our technical courses.”
Students passing out of the university, he said, fail to get jobs because they lack hands-on experience. “Our goal is to send them out with such experience,” he remarked. The university is instructing affiliated colleges to take the initiative in this regard.
Reacting to the decision, R Shivakumar, member of the VTU executive council, said, “Producing thousands of graduates without giving them hands-on experience will not complete the goal of the university.”
Shivakumar, a former president of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said students who do well during the internship have better chances of finding placements.
Students are happy with the decision. “But who will communicate with the industries? If that is left to students, it would be a problem again,” said Shwetha, an engineering student from UVCE, Bangalore. Yashwanth Kumar of Dayanandsagar College of Engineering said, “Even if we secure 80-plus percentage, companies concentrate on 90-plus candidates at the campus interviews. If we do internships, we can prove our abilities.”