E-Paper
Only 13% students of Chandigarh colleges got job offers in campus placements in 2018-19
The pay package for both PG and UG courses ranges between ₹1 lakh per year to ₹4 lakh per year
Despite the fact that most of the city colleges were graded ‘A’ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), only 13% of students studying in these institutes got job offers during campus placements last year.
The data on campus placements was recently released to be sent for the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. The NIRF is a methodology adopted by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD), Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India.
At 18.4%, postgraduate students fared better than those who completed their graduation (11%) from these seven colleges. The only silver lining is the fact that placements have improved marginally over the past three years (see box).
Consider this, in Sri Guru Gobind Singh College (SGGS), Sector 26, only 2.12% of students were placed whereas in its sister college, Guru Gobind Singh College for Women (GGSCW), Sector 26, only 1.33% of girls were employed after graduation.
When it comes to UG courses, in both Post Graduate Government College for Girls (PGGCG), Sector 42, and PGGCG, Sector 11, only 13% students were placed, whereas in PGGC (co-ed), Sector 11, only 12% of students were placed in the last academic session.
In case of postgraduate courses, the Mehr Chand Mahajan Dayanand Anglo Vedic College (MCMDAV), Sector 36, recorded 21% placement, whereas in Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College (GGDSD), Sector 32, the rate of placement was just 5%. In the case of DAV College, only 20% students got placed.
Four colleges—PGGC-11, PGGC-46, Dev Samaj College and Government College of Commerce and Business Administration—did not participate in the rankings.
‘NO JOBS FOR ARTS STUDENTS’
Balraj Thapar, principal of GGDSD-32, said, “These are not professional colleges. Jobs are not available for the students of arts. Commerce and science graduates still get employment as they are skill-based courses but the situation in arts and humanities is poor.”
Principal of DAV College Pawan Sharma said, “Skill is important in jobs. Different companies have different skill-set requirements.”
POOR PAY PACKAGES
“Many students don’t opt for jobs via placements as the pay packages offered are not up to their satisfaction. They want to exhaust all other options before they settle for a job,” added Sharma. “For students, taking a job also means displacement to other cities which is not everybody’s priority.”
The pay package for both PG and UG courses ranges from ₹1 lakh per year to ₹4 lakh per year as per NIRF data.
WOMEN DON’T PARTICIPATE
On placements in city’s women colleges, Nisha Bhargava, principal of MCM DAV, reasoned, “Many placement drives are conducted but girls often opt out of them. After graduation, many of them opt for either higher degrees or marriages.”
Acknowledging that more effort needs to be put in, placement officer of SGGS-26 Sumedha Vikram Khanna said, “Our college has already signed MoUs with many organisations and companies like Zee Entertainment, Infosys, Aditya Birla Capital and so on. These firms will be visiting the campus this year and the (placement) figures will improve for good.”
