IIT-K salaries, offers take a hit

The slowing economy has taken a toll on the number of students placed and the profile of companies visiting the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, campus since January this year. Around 21 per cent of its students are yet to be placed this year.

A total of 1,037 students had reportedly applied for campus placement which began on December 1, 2008, of which 732 appeared for interviews while only 574 managed to secure final employment. The record is poor when compared to 98 per cent placement by mid-February during the last placement season. Similarly, around 96 per cent of students had been placed by January end in 2006-07.

Meanwhile, the 158 students who failed to get jobs have returned home, but IIT-K is trying to help them out. "We are in touch with them and are providing them information about the companies looking for employees," IIT-K campus placement office in-charge, Bharat Lohani, told Business Standard. 

The reason for the decline is being traced to the absence of a number of regular companies which recruited the students each year. Though 180 private and public companies were invited, several failed to turn up. Last year, 125 companies had participated in the recruitment process, employing 700 students, while this year 129 companies managed to employ only 574 students.

The institute has now opened the doors for little known private colleges and universities. Kalinga Institue of Technology, VIT-Tamil Nadu, Lovely Professional University-Punjab, ADVEID Life Education, Axion Education are some of the recruiters which visited the campus for the first time.

Incidentally, the average packages, too, have declined from Rs 6.5 lakh (Rs 650,000) last year to Rs 5.8 lakh (Rs 580,000) pa this year.

A total of 39 students have been hired by these educational institutes, offering packages between Rs 5.5 lakh (Rs 550,000) and Rs 7 lakh (Rs 700,000) per annum.

DPS Bhagalpur was also one of the first timers at the IIT-K campus, recruiting two students at an annual package of Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) each, assuring a minimum 10 per cent hike from next session. Even for this job, around 50 B Tech and M Tech students were in the fray, of which only two were finally selected.

Lohani said that the conventional software and hardware companies did not visit the campuses this year. Lohani emphasised that students are getting jobs in the education sector, where the recession has made little impact.