Smt RD Shah Arts & Smt VD Shah Commerce College B.Com Review By Jignesh Parmar

The college is located in my hometown Dholka which is 40kms from Ahmedabad. The college is 60 years old and is affiliated with Gujarat University. The college is a godsend for the people of Dholka and nearby villages as this is the only good college in this area. The schooling system in the area has bettered in the last decade or so but for higher education, people still go to Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar. My 12th percentage didn’t permit me to go to those cities and trying out the college of my village was the only college that were happy with my percentage and handed my admission letter immediately. There is a cut-off list and all in place but a conversation with management and the principal is enough to get admissions here even with a lesser percentage. The Dholka college infrastructure is just like a village and there’s nothing fancy about it. The strictness and all was such that it will put the top colleges in shame. The college has a lot of Gujarati flavor in it most of the professors explained the syllabus in Gujarati.

The college is affiliated with Gujarat University. The college is strict and if one bunks for a while the parents are being called upon and threats are as common as anything at the college. Along with studies, NCC and NSS are actively involved in the campus. Half of the students do join either of them as the college has sent many individuals to the army. The academic year is full of activities and before we realize that its exam time we are already done with that year. Academics play an important part but promoting the talent of the college for inter-college competitions has been a trend and students of our college didn’t just did well at the academics level but have won various competitions as well in other activities.

For B. Com there were around 12-14 teachers and each of them believed in the craft they knew. Gujarati was not just the preferred language of the professors but of the students as well. The entire syllabus was done well before time and we had 2-3 mock tests before the finals. The faculty threw a lot of weight on individuals and always motivated us to score well so that our college can get the recognition it deserves.

Indian Army was the only recruiter. If the individuals are associated with NCC or sporting activities were given a chance to give their fitness test at the campus itself. No other corporate or companies were ever seen inside the college gate. The individuals were left on their own to find a job. College did provide quality education and made us capable of handling accounts and that was all that they could do for us. I as an individual value the services provided by the college because Dholka is a village and which company will come here and that too hire commerce graduate students.

The college has a boy's hostel building that has 18 rooms. People coming from far-off villages stayed there and there was always a case of students requesting the college to add more rooms. A capacity of 36 was turned into 48 as the rooms were initially 2 seaters but then converted into 3 seaters looking at the demand. The hostel is inside the campus and the student mess is on the ground floor that serves meals thrice a day to the students staying in the hostel.

Both the college buildings are poor and needs serious attention because the paint has gone off and the walls are on the verge of breaking. The entrance is beautiful as on the left there’s a garden and building on the left. The classrooms are not contemporary but still good enough. The computer lab was also good and it had some 20+ pcs with a net connection. The computer lab also had a Xerox machine and projector & scanner. The college has a huge playground and sports like volleyball, cricket, wrestling, and Kabaddi are played on the ground. The main building also has a sports room that has 2 table tennis tables and some gym equipment. That was it about the infrastructure as the college didn’t even have a canteen.

Life at the college was full of activities as there are some 20-30 activities held every year. I will start with the sports day as it was a weeklong event and for the first 3 days we used to have competitions within the college and after that the intercollege sports week where students of our college didn’t just participate but won trophies in sports like volleyball, gymnasium, and power lifting. The events started from the first month and that kept on happening till the year ended. Some of the best competitions that are held included elocution, mimicry, traditional wear, and antakshari, etc. There were numerous events just for girls such as rangoli, mehndi, clay modeling, and poster making. Many social events like blood donation, HIV awareness, and grow more trees were some of the social campaigns that were carried out on college behalf by the students of the college. A village like Dholka having all such activities in college is a big thing.