From over two lakh applicants who apply for various undergraduate programmes (UG) at Delhi University (DU) every year, about 55,000 get admission and only those with near perfect scores walk into colleges with courses of their choice.
At the end of the three-year course, apart from a few students who bag high-profile jobs, the rest look forward to further studies as they get offers with low salaries.
The Delhi University has a centralised Campus Placement Cell (CPC), where students from across colleges can register. However, some colleges have their own placement cells.
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“It is a sorry state of affairs because after studying at one of the best universities in the country students are unable to find attractive employment opportunities. Some colleges get good placement offers but the numbers are very small,” said former Economics (Hons) student Stuti Bhatia, who works with an online job search portal.
For students looking to choose a college based on placement offers, a few with placement cells have shown that although several recruiters visit the campus only a handful receive offers.
At Lady Shri Ram College for Women, the placement cell stated that it had a high number of recruiters this year and 128 offers were made by the companies involved.
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“The highest package was ₹37.8 lakh per annum. Offers ranged from companies such as AIG, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC], American Express, Ernst & Young, Boston Consulting Group, BCC, CP Group Wholesale, DE Shaw, KPMG, Kepler Cannon, Leo Burnett Worldwide, BoA and many others,” said Alveera Seikh, coordinator of the cell.
The average number of students being hired by any company has increased, she said, adding that a higher number of students were placed from the Arts stream.
At Hindu College, over 30 recruiters made 90 offers, of which 70 were accepted. “The gross placement package this year was over 500 crore, with an average package of ₹5.9 lakh in areas such as management consulting, risk advisory, financial analysts, financial research, data analysts, tax and accounting advisory, investment banking and HR advisory,” said Shreyas Mehra, vice-president of the placement cell.
The Shri Ram College of Commerce, in its placement report for 2018, stated that it touched new heights surpassing the industry expectations with more than 60 companies participating in the process making over 300 offers.
“The highest package this placement season has been ₹31 lakh per annum offered by the consultancy giant Parthenon – EY and the average package was ₹6 lakh per annum. The companies rolled out offers crossing a gross worth of more than ₹15 crore,” the college said in a statement.
The placement cell of Sri Venkateswara College managed to get 146 offers for the Departments of Science, Commerce and Arts.
“The recruitment for a lot of companies is still in process. However, till now, the average salary package stands at ₹4.15 lakh. The highest package was ₹10 lakh per annum, offered by OneDirect,” said Anshul Garg from the placement cell.
A total of 88 companies offered placement opportunities and 560 made internship offers, he added.
Not job, but education
Several students feel that they come to DU for the quality of education and not good job offers.
“Our college does not offer placements, but the quality of education is extremely good. As a student, I do not think any of us would face any problem if we seek a job after college,” said Arpana Kapathia, a final year Political Science student from Miranda House.
In contrary to this, another DU graduate, Madhurima Kundu said, “The youth of this country is already facing job scarcity. In such situation if the top universities do not provide job then where will the students land?”
Low salary offers
At the Central Placement Cell, the students said they were offered low salaries and so many opted out.
“Students don’t take placements because the starting package is not good and there are few opportunities for those from non-commerce backgrounds,” said Priyanshu Pandey, a final-year student from Sri Venkateswara College.