Teachers at Calcutta University have written to the dean of engineering requesting him to ensure the exams for the third-year BTech students are over by the second week of May, so they “can spend 6-8 weeks” in industry before the final-year classes start.
The letter, addressed to acting dean Debasish Das, says internship is a crucial aspect of the BTech study and has been recommended by the All India Council of Technical Education.
Repeated calls and text messages to the Das went unanswered.
Over the past two years, third-year students attended internships online because of the pandemic-induced closure of the campuses.
Teachers said students were keen to attend internships offline following the reopening of the campuses. And that has prompted them to write to the dean with the request to ensure that the exams for the third-year students are over by the second week of May.
Sankhayan Chowdury, a professor in the computer science and engineering department and one of the signatories to the letter, said they had written to the dean because the exam schedule had not yet been announced.
“Internship is a key component of the BTech course because it gives students an exposure to industry. If the exams are not held on time, they will be denied the exposure,” Chowdhury said.
Internships start after the completion of the sixth-semester exams. “When an engineering student appears in a job interview, prospective employers ask whether he or she has done an internship,” said a teacher.
Before the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, the office of the controller of the examination used to fix the exam schedule in consultation with the boards of studies.
A teacher said that over the past two years, when the exams were held online, the departments would come up with their respective exam schedules.
“But now that offline classes have resumed, we want the university to hold the exams in-person on time through the controller of the exam's office. Since the process has not yet been initiated, we have approached the dean,” said a teacher.