Placements come with a price tag

Engineering colleges demand their share from students before or after they get jobs

‘Hundred per cent’ placement is something most engineering colleges do not forget to gloat about, which turns out to be a big draw for the students. Little do the students know that they will have to pay a price for it.

Students, who are already being forced to pay “other fee” or “college fee” (as some colleges put it), which could run into a few thousand rupees, also have to pay colleges for making them employable and employed. What is even more surprising is that even some government colleges are demanding from students their “reward” for helping them getting the placement.

One such college in Bengaluru charges Rs. 2,000 per student, citing the measly amount they get as tuition fee, with which it is difficult to cover heads such as placement training.

‘Placement’ has become serious business with college managements charging students either for training them to participate in the placement process, and/or after they have an offer letter in hand. Those who managed to get more than one offer letter or a good pay packet may have to loosen their purse strings further.

An engineering graduate from a prestigious college in south Bengaluru, seeking to be anonymous, explained how it works: “We are allowed to get two offer letters. Once we get the first one, we have to pay them Rs. 3,500. If we get the second offer letter, we have to pay Rs. 2,500. They have slabs for pay packages and no student can get two offers from the higher slab.”

In another popular college in south Bengaluru, students pay colleges depending on the pay they are offered. The higher the pay you are offered, the more you pay the college. “They collected around Rs. 10,000 each year since our first year. After getting placed, I again had to pay the college,” said a graduate from the college. The range for the final payment (after getting the job) was from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 5,000.

‘Pre-placement training’ is another opportunity for colleges to get students to shell out money. This could be voluntary or mandatory, depending on the college, with some of them engaging private companies to conduct the training programmes.

Some students, who have just been through the entire placement process, were not happy with the prospect of having to pay to get the placement. But some of them were willing to give some credit to the colleges: “We understand that they pay some money to companies to come to the college for campus placements. But what we are charged should be a reasonable amount,” said one student. Another graduate who got a placement asked: “It’s important to know what they do with this money.”

Companies ‘book’ candidates before final year

There is rigorous placement activity going on in colleges. There is nothing unusual about that, except that the campus recruitment is for the batch that passes out in 2016. Companies, in their effort to snap up the very best, are making a beeline for engineering colleges a full year before a new batch graduates. An official in a reputed engineering college in east Bengaluru said nearly 70 per cent of the students have already got their offer letters before they are in their final year of engineering. “This is because the companies want the cream of the lot. Students with a minimum of 60 per cent in the class 10, class 12 exams and in the six semesters of engineering are eligible to participate,” the placement officer explained. Another reason for companies to do so is to plan ahead for manpower for upcoming projects, he added.