SPPU placement cell provided placements to only 1,888 out of 6,122 students in past 5 years

A right to information (RTI) query has revealed that the placement cell of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has been able to provide job placements to only 1,888 out of the total 6,122 students in the past five years

A right to information (RTI) query has revealed that the placement cell of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has been able to provide job placements to only 1,888 out of the total 6,122 students in the past five years. This only goes to show how private universities are collaborating with industries and reaching out to placement divisions to provide better placements to their students while prominent state universities like the SPPU are lagging behind in the race.

A right to information (RTI) query has revealed that the placement cell of the SPPU has been able to provide job placements to only 1,888 out of the total 6,122 students in the past five years. (Shankar Narayan/HT PHOTO)

The RTI query in question was filed this month by Kuldeep Ambekar, president, Students’ Helping Hand, and the SPPU in its response revealed that in the five years since its placement and corporate relations’ cell was started in 2017, a total of 6,122 students from across streams and departments have applied for placements out of which only 1,888 students have been provided placements by the cell. Not a single placement was carried out in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Whereas the university did not provide details of the names of students, their starting package/s and in which companies they have been placed.

Ambekar said, “The university administration spent Rs3,410,743 on this cell in the last five years but comparatively, very few students have benefitted from it. Whereas most of these funds are used for maintenance and payment to staff under this cell and four other companies have been formed under it. But there are no details about how much work the staff is doing or what exactly are the expenses incurred.”

Whereas SPPU registrar Prafulla Pawar said, “The cell was formed in 2017 for conducting training programmes for students and faculty in the university. Whereas there were no direct placements carried out and these were carried out by the respective departments.”