Campus placements at Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi go down

The number of campus placements in the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT D) has declined over the past five years even as enrollments have increased, an RTI query filed by DNA has revealed. In the ongoing 2017-18 session, country's premier engineering institute has witnessed 30% placements as of now.

According to the data provided by IIT D in response to the RTI query, in the past five academic sessions, 2014-15 saw 32.5% campus placements, including both undergraduate and masters courses, the highest so far. Campus placements in 2013-14, 2015-16 and 2016-17 were 32.3%, 31.3% and 28.04%, respectively.

Every year, between 850 to 900 students enroll in the institute's Undergraduate Section (UGS), that includes BTech, dual degree and integrated MTech programmes, and 1,700 to 1,900 students take admissions in Post Graduate Section (PGS), that has MTech, MSc, MBA, PhD, and Master of Science (Research) programmes. However, on average, 700 students get jobs during campus placements sessions, said the reply.

The debate on low placements of engineering students started when Union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar raised the issue in Parliament in March, last year. He said that in 2016-17 only 40% of engineering graduates got placements after passing out.

However, IIT D Director V Ramgopal Rao termed it as a "change in trend. It's not like our students are not getting jobs. But number of students opting for campus placements has declined over these years. In December last year, student turnout at the placement session was very low. It got us worried, so we decided to collect some data to understand the scenario."

"They are either applying for jobs through different means or getting into start-ups, which has become the first choice among students these days," Rao said. However, the institute does not maintain any data on students opting for out-of-campus placements.

When DNA contacted several present and former IIT-D students, who opted out of campus placements, the majority of them complained of not finding a job of their "choice". "It is easier for computer, mechanical or civil engineering students to get jobs of their choice during campus placements as they have plenty of options. But for those from branches like biotechnology or textiles, there are only a handful of choices. We rarely get options where we can use our knowledge properly," said a present textile engineering student, who does not want to be named.

As per the data accessed by DNA, textile engineering is one of those branches that saw the lowest number of campus placements over these years even as it shares the highest number of seats (105) with civil engineering.

However, on average, 40 students from the branch got campus placements in the past four years (a separate data on this year's placement is not available yet).

Faculty members said textile engineering graduates are more interested in "research work". "Most of our students go for research work or higher studies," said Kushal Sen, a professor at the department of textile technology at IIT D.

Meanwhile, Amit Verma, a student representative in the institute's placement cell said that more and more IIT-ians are trying their luck in higher studies abroad. "One of the major reasons why students are not sitting for campus placements is that they are trying to explore opportunities outside the country. Hundreds of students have applied for fellowships this year as well," he said.

Lowest Count

As per data accessed by DNA, Textile Engineering is one of those branches that saw the lowest number of campus placements over these years even as it shares the highest number of seats (105) with civil engineering.