My experience is similar - Poznan, Poland - building your own CPU architecture is part of curriculum, most students hate it (and struggle to pass or don’t pass because of it). For people who like it and get it, it’s a perfect experience.
Why do these students expect to happen when they enter the workforce?
Our students are not less independent or less inteligent than Germans and Swiss. It's our faculty and teaching staff that is often neither able nor willing to implement good teaching practices.
I have often wondered what causes this huge difference in efficacy of teaching between eastern and western Europe. Past influence from the Soviets? Wealth difference? Other cultural influences?
I don't think it is any more. I did my BSc there and didn't have any course where you build CPU architecture of our own.