Varnit Kaushik's Review On Harcourt Butler Technological University - [HBTU], Kanpur

I got 757 rank in the UPSEE (Uttar Pradesh State Entrance Examination) in 2008. I joined the college because of the prestige associated with the one of the oldest Government colleges in India. It is the best engineering college in the state (exculding IITs and NITs).

The curriculum is standard with very less focus on research as compared to IITs/ NITs. The college is autonomous and has the power to modify its curriculum as per needs (unlike other UPTU colleges which have to follow the curriculum set by the university), but in reality, not a lot has been done on this front.

There were hardly any internship opportunities in college at our time. Only Exxon mobile came for internship for some marketing role. Apart from that since internship was not part of the engineering curriculum, the students had to find them on their own without any help from the college which focused on summer training and final placements.

The placements at HBTI were good if compared to other engineering colleges (exclude IIT/ NIT). Most of the companies took students based on their talent (irrespective of grades/ branch) and came to campus with the general perception that the college has great brand value and quality students.

We had an annual cultural festival along with individual branch wise technical festivals. The college admin and faculty were not very supportive of festivals (barring some teachers) and the lack of a single combined technical festival made it difficult to have it at a large scale.

During our times it was around 40k per year which comes out to be around 2 lacs for the entire course (quite less as it was a government college) of 4 years. As compared to other private colleges, it was of great return o investment. Hostel and other expenses are extra.

There was a government scheme under which 1-2 students in every branch got a fee waiver. Apart from this there were category based scholarships from the Government which students availed.

The exams were in semester with class tests in between which were not hectic at all once you get used to the system. The labs also had tests and practicals from time to time and attendance was an issue which was followed strictly. Overall it was chilled out with lots of time to pursue other things of interest as well.

UPSEE (Uttar Pradesh State Entrance Examination) which is an objective entrance examination which tests physics, chemistry and mathematics of students who wish to choose engineering as a career. After the results with the candidate ranks are declared, the selected candidates are called for counselling near there centers and asked to fill their college and branch preferences.

Most of the college faculty is very experienced and have a good hold over their subjects. There are no out of the world teaching experience when it comes to the faculty. Some of the new teachers were really not up to the mark (I guess teaching in general is not a very attractive profession for new talented people and those who are interested would prefer to go to IITs for this).