THE opening up of deemed university status to standalone engineering and management colleges has enabled some institutes such as BITS Pilani to drastically increase capacity in the last two to three years. While the recent decision by the government to derecognise some of them came as a jolt, the Supreme Court’s decision to maintain status quo has resulted in most of these colleges moving further up on their growth path.

While some of the deemed universities like Amrita  have begun to produce academic work of good quality, all of them have infrastructure of a reasonable quality. Some of these colleges like SRM have multi-location campuses while many others like VIT  boast of  a truly international student body. Most of them have student exchange programmes with different universities. What stands in good stead for the student is the assurance of a certain level of infrastructure and resource availability, though the level of teaching and learning experience vary widely. With individual admission processes and large capacities, these colleges do provide a better chance of obtaining an admission vis-à-vis some of the comparable state colleges. So  it makes sense to keep some of these colleges in your consideration set. 

College Profile: BITS Pilani

Location: Pilani, Rajasthan
Director: Mr. G. Raghuram
Flagship programme: BE Honours
Entrance exam: BITSAT
Student intake: 837
Disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Computer Science, Electrical and Electronics, Electronics and Instrumentation, Mechanical, Manufacturing
Full-time faculty: 162 (Professors – 17,
Assistant Professors – 44, Associate Professors -10, Lecturers – 91)
Fees (full course):  Rs. 561,000
Board & lodging (two years): Rs. 46,000
Approval/Accreditation: NAAC
Average placement salary: Rs. 400,000
Top recruiters: Adobe, Airtel, Bajaj Allianz,
Infosys, Samsung, Tata
Other programmes: BPharm (Hons), MSc (Hons) MSc(Tech), ME, MPharm, MPhil. MBA
Other campuses: Goa, Hyderabad, Dubai
Web site: www.bits-pilani.ac.in

BITS started off in the early 1900s as a small school. By 1964, it had grown into a set of colleges offering programmes right from Humanities to Engineering and was finally brought together as one Indian university and was rechristened as the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani or BITS, Pilani.

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In the engineering discipline, the institute offers integrated first degree programmes, higher degree programmes and Doctoral programmes, which are designed to allow as many components of science and applied science as are necessary for graduates to function effectively and efficiently in the technological society. Students can also pursue a double degree.

The BITS library, housed in a 65,000 Sq.ft. space, it has over 228,000 volumes, including books and bound volumes relating to Science and Technology, Management, Social Sciences and Humanities. The Practice School (PS), an internship programme, enables students to work in the real world for seven-and-a-half months; the classroom is taken to a professional settings such as national laboratories, financial institutions, R&D centres, software and healthcare organisations, where students and faculty get involved in real-life problems. Credits obtained by the student at the station form a part of his total credit towards his degree.

 The institute has a structured placement process, and companies are contacted two months ahead of the placement week. With its track record and enviable alumni network placements are a breeze at BITS, Pilani. The Research and Consultancy Division’s focus areas include Biological Sciences, Bioengineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Economic and Finance.