BTech placements plunge by over 10 percentage points in more than half of IITs since 2021-’22

The placement rate of Bachelor of Technology students at most Indian Institutes of Technology fell sharply between 2021-’22 and 2023-’24, according to data submitted by the Centre to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports.

Placements declined at 22 of 23 IITs, with more than half seeing a drop of over 10 percentage points. This was the first time that the government disclosed this data, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

The sharpest fall was at IIT-Dharwad, where the rate fell from 90.2% in 2021-’22 to 65.56% in 2023-’24, a decline of 24.64 percentage points. Among older IITs, placements dropped by 12.72 percentage points at Bombay, 12.42 percentage points at Madras, 11.15 percentage points at Kanpur, and 14.88 percentage points at Delhi.

The only exception was IIT (BHU)-Varanasi, where placements rose from 83.15% to 88.04%, an increase of 4.89 percentage points.

The IITs where the placement rate dropped by over 10 percentage points were Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, Roorkee, Dhanbad, Hyderabad, Ropar, Indore, Mandi, Palakkad, Jammu, Bhilai and Dharwad.

The country’s oldest IIT in Kharagpur saw its placement rate drop by 2.88 percentage points.

The parliamentary committee flagged the “unusual decline” in recent placement rates at IITs and said that it had observed a similar decline at the National Institutes of Technology, but did not reveal the supporting data.

The committee speculated that there could be various reasons for this decline, such as “students opting for higher education or pursuing start-up ventures”.

“The Committee noted that though the placement is dependent on market trends, the Department [of Higher Education] should find out ways and take measures to enhance employability accordingly,” the committee suggested.