Pandit Deendayal Energy University M.Tech Review By Abhishek Mali

I don’t think one needs an introduction for Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (Now Pandit Deendayal Energy University) as the University has none other than India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani on the board. PDPU University has a department called petroleum engineering and all the students are hired by Reliance Industries. Since I was from mechanical background I chose PG in the same department. I am a practical person and therefore the first thing that I saw at the campus was the workshop. It wasn’t that huge but certainly had the best and maximum number of machineries than all the colleges that I visited. Siemens has stated a center of excellence at the campus and it was a boon for mechanical students. Not just Siemens but companies like Schindler’s and Fujitec too run a student development program at the college. This means these companies are interested in the kind of students that the college produces. Hence the biggest doubt of mine that was the placement was solved immediately and I decided to enjoy my college life to the fullest. There were quite a few clubs and one can skip classes if the club meetings or activities are important and the University will have no objection to that. One rare club that I saw was astronomy club and did visit that quite a few times and must say it was one of the coolest clubs that PDPU College had.

It was mostly practical. The classes were conducted just 5 days a week and for the rest 2 days, we were set free and can engage ourselves in the programs conducted by the corporate or get associated with the club activities. I don’t think there’s ever a place on earth where you will see engineering students living their life to the core. Studying inside walls is not enough to be the best engineers and that is what the University believed in. PDPU had more practical sessions than the theory sessions and that’s what brought the best out of us.

Again the coolest as they would take lectures but at least 10 minutes they will shell out in knowing the students personally. This way students also knew about each other more. The faculty were given free hand and they could take the classes on the workshop or send us for training at the campus as it was going on at the campus. Some of the teachers were working in the companies that have tie-up with the college and they gave us complete info on what kind of manpower the company is seeking for. This made our minds clear and we could ask openly to the faculty to excuse us for lectures if we had something important than the lectures coming our way.

Two of India’s biggest corporate Reliance Industries and Adani Enterprises have their team at the campus at any point in time. The elevators seem to be the next big thing and therefore companies like Siemens, Schneider Electricals, and Otis Elevators too took many students from our department. I tried my best to get a job in Reliance but my skill set impressed Otis Elevators more and they were the ones who got my services. ROI wasn’t that great as we got half the placement of the amount of fees we paid. Getting a job was more satisfying as most of the colleges lie about the placement while PDPU Placement has a 100% record.

PDPU has 3 hostels in all. One boy's hostel, one girl's hostel, and one is a high-rise hostel. The high-rise hostel has single rooms and many NRIs or the ones who could afford that kind of fees lived in that hostel while I was in B Block that is boy’s hostel. The boy's hostel fees was no less either but staying in the hostel was sort of a compulsion because some of the facilities of the college were open 24*7 and only hostellers had the access to those. The food provided was purely vegetarian and also the menu consisted of Gujarati dishes that were loved even by our NRI friends. Forget about anyone else, ace cricketer Brett Lee visited our campus and he too had the food at the college mess with the students and he also couldn’t stop praising the food.

PDPU Campus is vast with so much greenery was the next level of the campuses that you will ever find. I have visited over 50 colleges including the IITs but none has a campus as clean and vibrant as PDPU. There are 4-5 gardens and all are so beautiful that evenings were spent underneath the stars. Many students used to enjoy at the part as we were allowed to play in the parks till 10 pm. Now, what do I say about the labs and workshops because they were clean as a whistle. I literally laugh when people say that our college has an e-library and they don’t know what AFW is. PDPU library has installed Alice for Windows and as soon as we enter the library the librarian will know which books have we already issued and this made the circulation of books faster. The classes were fully air-conditioned and had rotational chairs. The university has a food court that serves all the refreshments and fast food items. For practicing for cultural events a separate performing arts building was available at the campus. I am still not done but if one gets an opportunity to visit a University campus then please mark PDPU as the one because at least in India you won’t find such a beautiful campus.

The University was so easygoing that campus life never made me miss home. College activities and cultural events were financed at such a huge level that fests hangover lasted for weeks. Every year during the fests celebrities are invited to perform and this is where I missed it because a year after I passed out from the University, Sonu Nigam was invited and he performed at the University for over an hour.