ENGINEERING LEADERS?

It's no secret that there exists a certain air of cockiness about a public university student, an attitude that some would readily call arrogant if not elitist. 

The perception of a university matters, especially in the job market where prospective employers often tend to judge graduates based on their institution, at least initially. While that shouldn't exactly be the norm for obvious reasons, it is the prevalent process. We set out to find if a university like BUET actually equips its graduates with the necessary skills, or whether the claims that they stock the best and brightest students are full of hot air. 

It's a hot, humid night. BUET students crowd around the auditorium in a flurry of activity, hanging up Chinese lanterns and banners in preparation for the Mechanical Festival. As robotic as that sounds, tensions are high, yet there is an anticipatory buzz in the work. I almost feel guilty for taking four pairs of hand away from the work, but we're trying to get to the root of things here.

Mithila Dutta Roy and Fariha Musharrat Noshin are typical first year students. Excited, nervous and full of energy at the same time, their faces contort into apprehension when asked to sit for an interview. By contrast, Saif al-din Abdullah and Sayera Sun-um Nusaka, final year students, are relaxed and easy going: they have survived most of BUET and are on their way to graduating, so an interview is the least of their worries.

Public university students make a big deal out of entering university on account of the insane competition they have to face in the admissions process; when you're fighting for a single seat with about a thousand other students, if and when you finally get in, it is bound to fill you with a sense of pride. The first years, Mithila and Fariha, are no different.

"Getting into BUET was definitely an accomplishment because everyone kept saying it would be very difficult, and I didn't feel at the time that I was good enough. When I got in, it came as a huge shock and it hit home that I had done it, I managed to get into BUET" says Mithila.

Sitting at a rickety table with these four BUET students, I had a flashback to the time I went through a similar experience, how getting into Dhaka University made me expect so much from a university that was so difficult to get into. Similar to my experience, there is a wide gulf between what a university like BUET offers on the surface and what it actually gives you.

As far as living accommodations go, being a female engineering student living in a dorm in Dhaka can be pretty tough. Fariha takes it pretty positively though, saying it's fun and inclusive and convenient to be close to campus and have friends around.

There are the obvious downsides, as Mithila points out. "There were several cases of theft reported on campus, and although the authorities are usually slow in reacting, they are taking the latest incidents quite seriously. The girls living on campus face a problem of decreased mobility as well."

Sayera Sun-um, the fourth year student, chimes in to share her extensive experience of BUET. "I was psyched and excited at first, but I realized later how difficult it is to survive four or more years in BUET. It's an intimidating place if you can't keep up with course-work and that takes its toll. If you do cope though, it'll give you a new-found confidence in yourself, and you will have earned it through hard work. Nothing beats that feeling."

Not only are these three girls part of a larger group of women who are surviving the rigorous, near-impossible standards that BUET imposes, they are all eschewing social stereotypes that try to dictate what a girl can and cannot do. When asked why they got into engineering, Mithila replies that her family wanted her to go into the medical sciences till she insisted she wanted to go to BUET, while Fariha wanted to study engineering because she grew up watching Transformers and the anime fascinated her enough to instil a love for machines. Both Mithila and Fariha are planning to focus on Automotive Engineering in the future.

Hearing their optimistic plans, the fourth year duo can't help but reflect on how difficult it is to hold on to your dreams in BUET. For a discipline as hands on as mechanical engineering, all four agree that BUET's lab facilities are not up to the standard and there is no way to include the latest advancements in engineering other than in theory in class, setting aside the fact that damaged and worn out equipment rarely gets replaced. "It ties our hands behind our backs because we can't compete with the rest of the world. BUET is the best in Bangladesh, we can't be happy with just that. We need to find a way to compete on a global level" says Saif.

When asked what steps BUET could take to fund better lab facilities, and Sayera brought up an issue that is plaguing most public universities. "Universities abroad charge high fees and alumni make generous donations. While we at BUET get our fair share of donations, for some reason the funds are not really allocated efficiently. There is no scope for raising tuition fees, I think need-based scholarships should be given out instead of subsidising everyone, at least till the facilities improve."

The three young women are definitely breaking social traditions into pieces because they are 100% engineers and they don't give a damn if society looks down on them for getting their hands dirty at the machine shop. They're not fazed by the prospect of working in a field largely dominated by men, and believe their enthusiasm and abilities will shine through wherever they are. Would they do it any differently if they were given the option? Not a chance.

Is the BUET hype valid, then? Well, the people certainly live up to the purported brilliance. Saif, Fariha, Mithila and Sayera are just a small sampling of the brilliant minds that BUET houses, and given a little more support from the administration in terms of faculty and facilities, they can actually conquer almost anything.