Graphic Era Hill University BCA Review By Vidhi Nainwal

Graphic Era (Deemed to be) University was founded in 1993 by Dr. Kamal Ghanshala. There are three other branches of it- Graphic Era Hill University Dehradun, Graphic Era Hill University Haldwani, and Graphic Era Hill University Bhimtal (my College). The university holds a position in the top 90 Universities in the country. Graphic Era Hill University is in association with the University Grants Commission, Association of Indian Universities, Ministry of Education, and National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

The admission procedure that I went through was pretty simple. The university doesn't accept or reject you based on your mark sheet and you don't have to go through any entrance examination to get into the College. Anyone can apply and take acceptance into the university if he/she has cleared their intermediate examination. The only time when the 12th mark sheet matters are in the time of scholarship, the university provides scholarship to all those who scored more than 60% in the intermediate examination. This only happens in the first semester after that you are given a scholarship based on your semester mark sheet. Special 10% scholarship is also given to girls and the student from Uttarakhand.

I chose the Bachelor of Computer Application over all the other courses. Part of the reason for choosing this course was my apathetic nature for the other courses that the University offered and the other part was my slight interest in coding. I had great expectations from the university and I wasn't disappointed when I got in. The only thing that was triggering me in my first year in college was that how will I be able to cope up with the subjects when I was not from a computer background ( I took PHE as the 5th subject in my 12th because computer science was not available that year) but surprisingly it went well.

The faculty started teaching basic knowledge of every subject in the beginning and made sure that the non-IT background students don't feel like outsiders. The chances of getting a job from this course are higher because the education content keeps changing according to the current needs of the industry. They made us study python instead of C++ because python is a famous computer language these days as companies are looking forward to hiring people who have basic knowledge of python.

I don't remember the exact number but the total number of faculty members in the college would be somewhat around 80-90. A team of some 10-15 faculty members is made for each course and one faculty member is made the HOD (Head of the department). In my course, there are 10 faculty members.

Faculties are selected based on their Ph.D. degrees, interviews, and students' comfort. They are qualified, encouraging, and masters of their subject. Some professors have been educated from top universities such as IIM and Pantnagar University.

Students are trained throughout their course but mostly in the final years for placements. Companies like Infosys, Cisco, Amazon, Adobe, Capgemini, Cognizant, and Zscaler visit the university to provide jobs and internships. Almost 80% of students get blessed with placements. The average package a student receives is 30k /per month and the highest package received is Rs. 17 lac per annum by ZScaler.

My university is a branch of Graphic Era (deemed to be) University Dehradun (1993) hence it holds a bit less importance than the main University and the students of deemed are given more priority than is. If you are from Graphic Era University, the chances of the placement increases as better companies visit there and the highest package received by the university was Rs. 80 lac/per annum.

Separate hostel facilities for boys and girls are provided by the university. The ratio of girls and boys is about 2:3 respectively thus three hostels are occupied by boys and two by girls. The hostel was the first thing I remember being excited about. Since the college was built in 2011, all the hostel rooms are new and neat. The rooms are big, well furnished with three separate beds, a large horizontal study table with drawers, three chairs, three medium-sized closets, six small cupboards, three bedside tables with drawers, and a small balcony. Every six students share a washroom that has a water heater attached. Cleaning of rooms and corridors is done daily. The hostel fee for one year is Rs. 74,000 (food included) and laundry services are also provided by the hostel.

The only thing that I dislike about the hostel is the location of the hostel mess. The mess is not located outside the hostel. Boys and girls share the same mess. The quality of food is decent but they don't believe in using spices (I mean it). The menu provides a variety of food veg and non-veg (eggs, chicken, poha, sweet dishes, curd, milk, tea, bread, sandwich, pasta, french fries, paneer and the regular rice, chapati, vegetables, and pulses) Food is provided four times a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack between lunch and dinner. The campus is guarded by several guards, the permission of parents is to be taken before stepping outside the college campus and the in time for the hostel is 8:00 pm. Every Sunday a trip to a nearby place is organized by the warden (the majority of the time it's Nainital).

The university has a large campus with marvelous work of gardening. The environment is calm and soul searching, you might be thinking that I am exaggerating here but trust me I am not, the location is a hill station and till the point, your eyes can reach you will only see green. Our college got the title of 11th most beautiful campus in the country.

The campus includes a library, a massive auditorium, workshop, open-air theater, a big playground, a basketball court, a canteen, a cafeteria, a departmental store, computer labs, pharmacy labs, five hostel buildings, three big buildings (for teaching), and the main building. All classrooms are airy and furnished with wooden benches and smart boards. The university also provides a doctor and an ambulance for medical facilities.

The Grafest is conducted once every two years where famous singers from all over India come to conduct concerts (Last time it was Akhil!). The university celebrates every big festival with valuable speeches and sweets. Theater classes are organized in the Open-air Theater for the interested candidates. The college has a big auditorium for clubs, singing and drama practices.