Your expectations are really that unreasonable... if you're hiring CS grads without work experience. CS degree programs are not Java developer training, and it's unlikely any kind of classwork would require throwing an exception in any language; catching one maybe. For my own anecdoctal CS program experience, I wrote more functional code than OO, and was never required to use Java in any course.
You're expecting specific professional experience from people that don't have any. Exception handling is not an academic topic. It doesn't help students learn about data structures, algorithms, language development, compiler theory, etc... it's just a control flow construct used by some languages and not others. It's something they'll learn on the job if their job requires it -- easily enough, I'm sure.
If you want that specific knowledge, then require a year of work experience with Java in the job listing. Graduates don't have that by default.
You're expecting specific professional experience from people that don't have any. Exception handling is not an academic topic. It doesn't help students learn about data structures, algorithms, language development, compiler theory, etc... it's just a control flow construct used by some languages and not others. It's something they'll learn on the job if their job requires it -- easily enough, I'm sure.
If you want that specific knowledge, then require a year of work experience with Java in the job listing. Graduates don't have that by default.