IITs Consider not to Disclose Packages in Placement Reports and Focus on Mean Salaries; Check Details Here

Content Curator | Updated On - Jan 11, 2024

In response to concerns about student pressure during placement seasons, IITs are planning a shift in reporting practices. The focus might shift from revealing the highest annual packages to mean and median salary figures.

IITs Consider not to Disclose Packages in Placement Reports and Focus on Mean Salaries

New Delhi: Amid concerns about the pressure on students during the placement season, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are considering the omission of disclosing the highest annual packages in their placement reports. However, the latest reports reveal that instead, the focus might shift towards presenting mean and median salary figures.

This consensus took shape during a recent meeting of the All IITs Placement Committee (AIPC). Discussions at the meeting included the IIT-Bombay placement report, which claimed over 85 offers surpassing an annual package of INR 1 crore. However, in a notice, IIT-Bombay revised the number of INR 1 crore-plus offers in the first phase of placement to 22, citing a "technical error."

IIT-Bombay declared on January 4 that the initial phase of placements at IITB, concluding on December 20 the previous year, yielded a total of 1,340 offers. The announcement highlighted 85 offers with annual salary packages exceeding INR 1 crore, a substantial rise from the 25 such offers made in the previous year. The average annual salary package also saw an increase from INR 23.26 lakh to INR 24.02 lakh.

The IIT-Bombay report is said to have sparked criticism and discussions during the AIPC meeting, focusing on the potential repercussions of disclosing the highest salary figures. Concerns were raised about the impact on students and the potential creation of false expectations among parents, especially in a year characterized by an overall subdued hiring sentiment, partly influenced by the tech slowdown.

However, IIT-Bombay is not the only one revealing the highest salary packages. This year, IIT-Kharagpur, for example, disclosed that 20 students received offers of INR 80 lakh and above during the first phase of placements.

The latest reports revealed that Professor Debjani Mitra of IIT ISM Dhanbad, also serving as the chairperson of AIPC this year, chose not to comment specifically on questions related to the discussion about IIT-Bombay's placement data. However, she did confirm that there was an agreement not to disclose the highest salary packages.

All About the Decision to not include Packages in IIT Placement Data

The discussion of introducing guidelines on how to report placement data has been ongoing for some time. “I happened to be the convenor of the meeting where a consensus was taken not to disclose the highest packages. An offer letter is a confidential document between the company and the student. The CTCs (cost-to-company package) are hardly verifiable.”

During the upcoming AIPC meeting scheduled for February, the IITs are anticipated to establish common guidelines for the disclosure of placement reports.

The majority of these high-value offers are international, a factor often overlooked when scrutinizing the figures. Recognizing the potential negative impact on students' mental health, AIPC has requested IIT-Bombay and other IITs to refrain from sharing any information on CTC in the public domain. Highlighting the personal nature of this information, it is viewed as something that should remain confidential between the candidate and the employer, another AIPC member said.

Sameer Jadhav, the faculty advisor to IIT-Bombay’s placement committee, expressed agreement with the general sentiment against revealing top salary packages.

Jadhav added that it's crucial to acknowledge that these are outliers. Out of the hundreds participating in placement, only about 20 to 30 students receive such offers. This creates a skewed perspective of what IITs can provide and fosters unrealistic expectations among students and their parents.

Recognizing the pressure students experience during campus recruitment, the IITs are exploring whether disclosing only mean and median salaries is a more suitable approach, he stated.

Expressing regret for the earlier announcement of 85 offers exceeding INR 1 crore, he explained that there was a technical error in the SQL query related to salary. This resulted in some companies being mentioned multiple times. In reality, there are 22 offers with salary packages of INR 1 crore and above.

In the corrigendum issued, IIT-Bombay clarified that out of the 22 offers, three were domestic, and the remaining were for positions abroad. Sameer Jadhav noted that among the international offers, a majority were for roles in European countries with a high cost of living.

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