This year, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have decided to remain silent on their placement data. The annual on-campus process began on December 1. However, only IIT Kanpur, Roorkee, BHU, and Kharagpur have shared some information, while the other IITs—Delhi, Madras, Guwahati, and Mandi—have decided to release an update around December. 15 or the last update, after the session ends on 1 December.
The reason for not disclosing the information is the improvement of students, IIT professors revealed. “All institutes, in the recent All IITs’ Placement Committee (AIPC) meeting, discussed not releasing daily updates of campus placements. AIPC has suggested IITs to release weekly or fortnightly updates. Daily updates This is proposed keeping in mind that the mental health of students who have not yet been placed may be negatively affected. We want to ensure that these media reports do not add pressure on IITians,” Prof. Kaushik Pal, AIPC The coordinator said. indianexpress.com.
AIPC members include career development or training and placement cells of all 23 IITs as members, who meet at regular intervals to share their recruitment experiences and problems.
By 2023-24, most of the IITs shared daily updates about campus placements that included the names of companies, highest and median packages, total number of students who were able to get offers, number of international offers.
IIT placements are held in two phases – the first phase in December and the second phase between January and June.
New IITs like IIT Hyderabad, Dharwad and others have decided to release the final placement report around August and September when the placements for the 2024-25 session are over.
This decision not to disclose the highest packages etc. has received the support of many IIT professors. Professor Saumya Singh, head of the Career Development Center at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, asserted that daily media reports of IIT placements “may affect students who are not established, especially as they also get to hear statistics from other IITs.”
IITians currently appearing for placements have given mixed reviews on this decision. Some students believe that reading media reports does not play a major role in raising the stress level among IITians. “We have a lot of other things to worry about. If a student doesn’t get an offer in the first two or three days, I doubt they’ll have time to read the media reports. I would have concentrated more on my other exam/interview preparation,” said Rithvik Reddy, a civil engineering student at IIT Madras, who has received an offer at his preferred company.
However, AIPC along with all IIT representatives has formally decided that no IIT will disclose details about students’ CTC. The decision was taken at the AIPC meeting in January 2024, where the discussion included the IIT Bombay placement report from December 2023 which claimed 85 offers over an annual package of Rs 1 crore. The claim was later corrected citing a “technical error”.Revising the number of over 1 crore offers to 22 in the first phase of placement.
This decision has also received support from IIT professors and students as cut-throat competition was making IITs nervous about the ongoing placement season, especially since many big companies were no-shows in last year’s placement season.
Some students have praised the decision because they believe it will ease the anxiety caused by students’ parents. “I am a final year student of IIT Delhi and my neighbors back home know that I want to get placed this year. So if they start reading reports about my institute or other institutes, they will pester my parents about whether I got placed or not. Once I After being placed, they ask about the company and the package and even compare it with others through media reports,” said a final-year student at IIT Delhi, who is yet to be placed.
(Indianexpress.com published a 5-part series on IIT placements. The first part explained why pre-placement offers (PPOs) are becoming popular and the second part explained the IIT placement process. The third part talks about the forecast for the 2024-25 recruitment process. The fourth part is from the students’ perspective on how to prepare for placements, and the last part is about start-ups returning to IITs. You can find all IIT placement related stories here)