Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College B.Tech Review By Sahil Vasava

BVM turned autonomous the year I joined and a good GUJCET score will make your way through this college. The college is 70+ years old and therefore safe to say that the oldest engineering college of Gujarat in BVM. The IITs too started post BVM as it started the year we got our independence and the foundation stone was laid by none other than Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It has the maximum stream in engineering as there are as many as 11 streams and students not just from Gujarat but from pan India have trusted their futures on BVM. I did Mechanical engineering from BVM and the boiler house that has been built specially for the mechanical stream where steam turbine, steam engine and a working boiler was provided to us for having a first-hand live experience of the same. Not just for mechanical for all departments the college has established the modern labs and major learning was done in such labs as the college thoroughly believes in providing productive students rather than just providing the rankers.

One of the best that you will find as I have always been curious and therefore whenever I got the opportunity to meet students of different colleges I talked about the education system that prevails in their college. BVM is way ahead of them and something that other colleges can only imagine of. The classes are still those old school kinds of benches and the white blackboard. As far as I know the classes were scheduled to modernize so it may be changed now. One flagship course of the college is production engineering which I heard for the first time when I joined the college. BVM is one of the best places where you can learn.

There were over 30 faculties, if I just take in consideration my department. All the professors are PhD from none other than IITs. Barring a few all had teaching skills that came in handy as I hardly had to go and revise what I learned in the class. The faculty put in all the hard yards and made sure that their knowledge is passed on to students as much as they can. I was more than happy attending the lectures and working with them in the workshops and labs. As soon as the college turned autonomous the institution started a teacher development program to make sure that only the best of faculty get the much deserved opportunity as engineering line as a whole is never ending.

In respective terms the placements were above average and most of the students got the direct ticket of Mumbai as L&T was the largest recruiter from mechanical students and most of them are currently working for L&T (Powai) unit. The other companies that showed interest in mechanical stream were Linde, Godrej, some IT companies, and capital goods companies. The average placement was between Rs. 5-6 lakhs. I don’t know what was the highest package but for Rs. 10LPA for sure. The college helps in student getting placed through the medium of placement community that keeps a record of our preferences and numbers that we have scored throughout.

BVM has both boys and girls hostel facilities but mind you the hostel is below average. The hostels are taken care by CVM but considering the fees that they charge renting an apartment and staying there is a much better option. The CVM hostels which are outside the campus are quite old and not maintained at all. You will hardly find BVM students staying there even after the college has a lot of seats reserved for them. Also the hostel doesn’t provide food and for that we had to go out. After the 1st semester itself, I along with my friends to moved to an apartment. The hostel facility provided by the college is not worth at all.

The building which was built way back in 1948 is the one that is a big disappointment. Talking about the facilities all the facilities are provided as the workshop of BVM is perhaps the best as I got the opportunity to visit IIT Mumbai campus and even they don’t have the innovative lab and the workshop that BVM has. If you are a fan of tall and huge buildings then this college doesn’t have anything like that. The auditorium of the college is wonderful and so is the library. The college has a canteen but you can find tasty and better food than the canteen at a much cheaper price just outside the college. The basic facilities are all there at the college but nothing great about it other the huge workshop.

Large events are a part of engineering student and as many as 15-20 events are organized by the college. The Xitij fest and the annual fest are covered by the local media as BVM talent is looked into by many. The best part of the campus life was 6 weeks mandatory industrial training to get the degree. Since there were not many colleges, many of us got the internship opportunity at L&T (Powai) unit and that was the time when I saw the IIT and can say that we are actually ahead of them in a few departments.