Chitkara University B.Tech Review By Mayank Dogra

Chitkara University has 2 campuses, 1 in Punjab and 1 in Himachal Pradesh. I was at its Solan branch as I hail from Himachal Pradesh. Solan campus is quite small compared to the one in Punjab. Initially at the Solan campus there was just Engineering college but now there are four institutes which were built while we were studying there. The student area at the university was one of the best as Student welfare program was introduced to make sure those students doesn’t have any sort of problem at the campus. The only problem with distinguished campus was that it had most of the students from the state and therefore we couldn’t get the opportunity to study alongside cosmopolitan crowd. We were made to visit Punjab campus during 3rd and 5th semester and in some sense that campus is bigger and better than this one. Education wise though Solan campus is better has here are less students and more faculties to take care of the students.

The university accepts state entrance score as well as the JEE score to get admitted. I had scored well in both the fronts and it was an easy ride for me to get admitted here. The campus has some of the best classrooms and all classes are also recorded. Even if one has missed the class the students section has an audio-visual room where we can go and go through all the classes that were missed. It was like a mini theatre and some students bunked classes purposely. Jokes apart as education was taken much seriously here and attendance below 60 was not permitted. Many students were put to rest and were not allowed to appear for semester exams even after their parents coming and saying sorry. No nonsense policy when it comes to attendance which I guess is quite lenient. Many colleges demand 70-80% attendance but here it’s just 60 which is quite manageable.

Over 30 faculties for our branch and each faculty’s backup were there at the campus. Many teachers left in-between but the second day itself we had the proxy teacher to take care of the classes. Never seen such a quick back-up or even heard something like that. Himachal Pradesh has a teacher’s competition every year and in 2015 it was organized in our college. As usual our teachers won which they have been winning for a while now. The competition includes quiz competition, sports competition, and a debate competition. The gist of the matter is that winning is a habit and since our faculty were adept in that they infused the similar qualities in us as well.

University was still new when I joined and many big names like Google, and Amazon has started coming to the campus but due to lack of exposure hardly a few students cracked them. Among India IT companies, Wipro has tie-up with college and so has L&T Infotech who took most students with a pay package in the range of 3-5 LPA. Some felt it’s a nice way to start a career while some felt it’s less than what as an engineer we expect. Placements were done on a large scale and for those who were good enough could have had an opportunity to get placed through campus.

Boy’s hostel was at the end of the campus and we had mountain backdrop besides our hostel. Hostel was great in both regards be it rooms and food. The rooms were spacious and could have had three beds instead of two. For each student there was a separate bed, cupboard, shelf, and a table. Hostel had its own Wi-Fi and had solar heaters in each room because all year round we used to bath with warm water. Himachal is chilling all year round and that’s perhaps not by chance but by choice that heaters and geezers are compulsory. Hostel had a common room with TV and pool tables in it. Seniors would occupy both the table and until we entered the third year, I never had the chance to hold the pool stick. Senior, juniors is there at the hostel but no physical ragging can ever be witnessed at the campus.

The 17-acre campus had over 10 buildings and all look amazing from the outset. Nursing college was built in 2016 and were about to start their batches from 2018. During our time, only engineering college operated but now I guess there are 4 institutes that are running and 2 new boys and girl’s hostels were also built. They were built at the cost of a playground which was next to girl’s hostel. This is sad as that ground kept the boys motivated to play. Playground is still there as there were two initially and along with playground there’s also an indoor sporting arena with a tennis court and 4 badminton courts in it.

Life at the university was chilling just like the weather in Solan. The capital of the state Shimla was around 50kms and we were taken on outings to Shimla every month. Campus was good enough to roam and had enough facilities to make sure students by most of their time at the campus.