Anand Institute of Higher Technology MCA Review By Devendra Bajpai

After doing BCA, I decided to do MCA and AIHT was the first college that came to my mind. My cousins stay there and they were the ones who introduced me to AIHT. They have an entrance exam and that score will only lead you to MCA course. Out of 120 seats the college just has 10 management quota seats and rest all through the entrance score only. The class strength was 60 and that I believed was on the higher side. The course duration was 2 years and coming from a north Indian family it took some time to adjust in a south Indian environment. Though the crowd was cosmopolitan as the students from all length and breadth of the country can be easily found in this college.

The college location is a bit far from the Chennai main city but the institute has its own 40 buses available in the campus that will drop you to any place in Chennai. One thing that is actually rare to associate with colleges in South is fests. However, with AIHT it was completely opposite. The college organises 3-4 technical and non- technical fests every year. Non-technical fests include cultural and social fest. In our time actress Nayanthara graced the event and encouraged the students. Even the teachers make sure that maximum students participate in the fest to discover their other side. The studies are just too tough and sometimes I actually felt as a caged bird in a park as I could never step out due to study load. The college campus is cleaned daily to make sure a healthy environment stays in the institute. I am glad that I chose this institute as it has shaped me and my career the way I always wanted it to be.

The college is affiliated to Anna University and must say that the University is one of the toughest. The course was so lengthy that it actually took some doing from the students and the teachers end to complete the course. The students are loaded with books and after attending classes for 8 hours, we still had to spend 3-4 hours on studies as the books were so detailed. At once I actually thought of dropping out and take some job as out of 60 students in our class only 46 moved on to the next classes. 14 students actually dropped out.

The course is divided into 4 semesters and each semester lasted 5 months. In between we had one month's much needed break. The classrooms are huge and modern. Digital blackboard and latest teaching techniques were adopted by the college in last few years only. The practical sessions were conducted twice in a week and were something that we waited for throughout the week.

Talking about the ratio it was great as the student teacher ratio was 10:1. Almost all the staff members were quite friendly with the student and always encouraged if we went to them for queries. The faculty members were highly educated and knowledgeable. They exhibited all their knowledge to the students and made sure that students are ready to enter the corporate world after the course. The faculty members also encouraged us to participate in the fests as they believed that’s the best way students can unwind themselves.

Most of the faculty members used to stay in the campus and our teacher Kavya Krishna also used to conduct extra classes in her quarter. Not just she but many faculty members made sure that we don’t even enjoy Sundays as most of the Sunday’s were occupied by extra classes. Even if a few students raised a query it automatically became natural for all the students to be a part of those extra classes. If I put that into perspective, I can say that faculty members did their best to make sure that students don’t lag.

The companies now have become smarter and they themselves conduct qualifying test. Hence during the final semester placement training became the priority and having said that it wasn’t free. The placement training fees was INR 10k but the best part was we can choose our own sector and we were provided training as per the requirement of that sector. Still the fees was something that was hard to digest as I felt this is college’s duty still no complaints though.

Most of the students opted for IT sector as their preferred choice and Wipro being the largest recruiter, nearly 60 students were hired by Wipro. The placement though was 80 percent I would say as some students failed to get the cut. The college however have their off campus placement cell as well and make sure that no one goes empty hand. Among IT sector, companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and HCL Technologies were the top recruiters. The average package during our batch was INR 5.5 lakhs and the highest one was of INR 12 Lakhs. One can argue that it is less in comparison to other post graduate programs, but it is what it was.

There are 3 hostels in the campus. One is girls’ hostel that is located at the opposite end of 2 boys' hostel. Talking about the boy’s hostel, there are 2 blocks. One hostel building has 100+ rooms while our one had 80 rooms. Our hostel was a bit sophisticated one and reserved for students doing PG. The rooms were big enough for 2 to easily accommodate. 2 separate beds, 2 separate study tables, and 2 separate shelves. Hence, it is safe to say that social distancing can be easily maintained in the room. The bathroom size was also decent, and the best part was that rather than common bathrooms that we have in the hostel our hostel had bathrooms in the room.

The hostel also had a mess and the food served as good enough. However, out of 7 days in a week on 6 days south Indian food was served. Sometimes I did feel like I can’t have it but going out was hardly an option. Though no complaints with the quality of food offered. The hostel building also had its separate playing area and a parking space. In all, the hostel life was good and the only complaint that I have is most of the students openly smoke in the hostel building. The management or the warden never did anything to address this serious issue.

Like many other colleges in Chennai, AIHT too has a huge campus that is spread across 25 acres. The college campus has 8 buildings and also a separate building for staff quarters. The campus does have 2 boys and 1 girls hostel as well. The college campus is green and has enough trees to make sure that humid climate of Chennai stay away from the campus. The college has a huge playground that is cleaned just a week before the sports week. Other than that, the whole college is well-maintained. The strength of the institute is too high as it offers as many as 16 courses and still the library size is not good enough for 3 courses. Unfortunately, it’s too small and I never got the opportunity to study in the AC study hall of the library as it was always occupied.

The best part was auditorium building with a seating capacity of 1500 students at a time. This was built keeping in mind the number of students enroll in the college then why not library. The classrooms are huge and also there are washrooms on each floor. The water coolers are also provided on each floor and thus you won’t have to travel from floor to floor for water. The institute runs 40 buses to pick and drop students from each corner of the city. The college has a nice little canteen and one cafeteria that serve some of the best tea. Even if you have to go out you can use the bus services as each bus has been confined certain areas. In all the infrastructure of the college commands thumbs up because the basic facilities are all there.

Talking about the life on campus the campus was always lively. As every month some or the other events were organised and being dominated by the engineering students one can imagine the creativity that the campus had. It’s safe to say that South Indian students dominated the campus strength but mostly the people in the campus used to speak in English. Thus, language never became a barrier which otherwise is in South India. Fests were a great way to unwind and sports week was something that I will remember for a long-long time. No one from MCA has ever won chess and I was the first student from MCA stream who won the Chess championships. I was felicitated in front of the large crowd and that was one of the finest memories that I have at AIHT.

The students interacting with seniors or students of another stream were quite common. Hence, I made a lot of friends at the campus and if I wanted something from outside, I could easily get that without going out. The cafeteria was the place where we used to spend our evenings and talking about life goals. I am glad that I came here as I could see the thought process of people of North and south differs greatly. People from south have different priorities while North Indian is different. The campus life in a way was a great learning curve for me and I will always be thankful to AIHT. The campus was fully Wi-Fi enables and CCTV cameras were installed in every corner of the campus. Thus security wise the college was well equipped and I don’t see any reason why one should not try for this college.