Rollercoaster ride in Avantika University

Since user experience holds a large chunk of understanding the user and their psychology, it was my main direction to choose the curriculum. The course in itself focuses on building up the researcher aspect in the individual and understanding the user and not just focusing on the aesthetics. The curriculum aligns with the industry's needs and what the current trends are. Since the faculties are very young, students can relate to them as well as the faculties can explain the market situation more aptly. For now, I feel the curriculum is running smoothly without any bumps. Design exams are juries where we have to present all the assignments and projects we did in front of the panel members. The panel then provides us with feedbacks and accordingly we get graded. There are also grading after each end course submission.

Big companies like Myntra, big asket, IKEA offer internships to 3rd year pass outs with a stipend ranging from 5,000 to 20,000. The internship is an on-site job with a time frame ranging from 3-5 months. Depending upon the performance, the student can get an early placement offer accordingly. As I am a second year student currently in 3rd semester, I have not yet received any internships from college. Though a student can get remote internships through LinkedIn, internshala, etc.

Because of recession, the placement drive was a bit dry this year. The campus starts providing internships at the end of 6th semester. This internship is an on-site internship for 3 months working with professionals. The campus placements usually starts around the end of 7th semester where companies come in and review the students portfolio and accordingly place the students. Companies like Deloitte, TCS and hexaware are in tie up with the university. The highest package to date is 20,00,000 by newzera. The average dwels down to around 6,00,000. The students can also outsource their placements through connection. The placement cell also helps students connect to industry professionals to help guide the students .

The tution fees for bachelor's of design program is 4,15,600 per year including everything. The hike in tuition fees is not there for now which means my whole education complets in 17 lacs. Financial aids like EWS category benefits are not there. Though there are many scholarships provided in the first year like Vikram, sudama, etc. Vikram scholarship is awarded to students with 90 percent and above marks in 12th grade. This can wave off 50 percent of the tution fees. In sudama scholarship, the student works for the university and in return gets a stipend. The stipend depends on the working hours the student has completed. Ranging from minimum 20 hours to maximum 40 hours per month where 200 rupees is provided for 1 hour of work. I was awarded with 50 percent scholarship in the first year. I also worked as a placement coordinator for the uniform 6 months under sudama scholarship where I used to get 8000 stipend per month.

There's a great campus life in avantika University. All festivals are celebrated with super cool enthusiasm between students. There are special menus for special occasions and also many cultural fests like hues. The library can accommodate more books. E library is well developed. Each studio classroom is equipped with projectors and speakers and mics. There many student run clubs as well like photography club, NSS CLUB, debate club. In addition to this there are main 3 student run clubs called as iconnect, weave and samagati. Iconnect brings in industry professionals as speakers every Friday for one on one connect with the students. Samagati focus on experiential learning through trips. Weave produces and an annual magazine focusing on the graphic and content writing prospects.

There are two types of hostel accommodation facilities, double sharing and triple sharing. The fees for double sharing room is 125000 annually while the cost of triple sharing is 65000 annually. All rooms have attached bathrooms, personal cupboards, desk, chair, and rack. There are room services where rooms are cleaned everyday. Plumber,electrician facilities are also provided with no extra costs. Water filters are available on each floor. There is also a facility of refrigerator, Induction and kettle in each hostel. Laundry services are biweekly with unlimited number of clothes that can be put for laundry. Nursing and doctors are available 24/7 with proper healthcare facilities.

There are no restrictions for 12th stream selection to get into bachelor's of design. The eligibility is 12th pass or diploma. Application forms are released around November each year. There's an online dst test to pass the exam. Since the university is a part of mit Pune campus, the student can also enroll themselves through MIT-DAT. The final round consists of interviews and portfolio review where students are judged based on their calibre to deliver things and communication skills.

So the availability of the faculties on campus is very good. We are allowed to interact with cross course faculties as well which is great for enhancing the overall exposure. Since the intake of students is more, faculty to student ratio has a disbalanced structure which makes it difficult for the faculty to provide inputs and feedbacks to each student. Due to this one on one interaction can be a difficult task for the faculty. The faculties are great because they belong to the industry for a quite a long time to provide us with the real life inputs.