Bengaluru: Only 354 engineering students have chosen to do an internship in the seventh semester instead of the eighth, in a cold response to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU)’s swapping system.VTU had launched the semester swapping system, permitting its students to pursue an internship in the seventh semester. The usual practice is to complete a project in the seventh semester and an internship in the eighth.The swapping system aims to ensure that students do not find it hard to land an internship as around 80,000 candidates apply at the same time. It may be recalled that last year, several students ended up with paid internships amid tight competition and confusion.This year, VTU set the ball rolling for students to choose to pursue an internship in the seventh or eighth semester. “The hope was that half of the students will choose in the seventh semester. With this, things will be smoother in both the semesters. But, only very few students took it up in the seventh semester,” said a VTU official.VTU is studying the reasons for this refusal to change. “Many students, who are hostelites, find it convenient to complete all the classes by seventh semester and then vacate the hostels. For instance, many of them would be pursuing internships in Bengaluru. So, they can vacate the hostel and shift to Bengaluru, thus saving six months of hostel fees,” he said.“Yet another group of students who wouldn’t want to change are those with supplementary papers. If they complete all the classes in the seventh semester, they will still have time to finish the failed papers in the final semester. If their classes finish only in the eighth semester, they will be worried clearing failed papers will take further time,” he added.“It will take time to change the mindset of these youngsters. We have to create awareness among principals and students about the advantages of the swapping semester system. We can only advise them; it cannot be made mandatory,” he observed.A college principal said that students continue to prefer the eighth semester. “Most colleges complete the project work in seventh. Students want to complete all the academic work and have a free mind for eighth so that they can relax. So even though VTU has given the flexibility, it has not been popular. Nobody from my college has opted for it,” he said.
