Placement percentages for top IITs decline 5 to 16% except for IIT Delhi: Is the end of their glory
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have traditionally been glorified as world-class engineering colleges, mass-producing graduates who excel globally. Recent trends, however, show that there is a growing disconnect. between the IIT curriculum and actual job market requirements. This has resulted in declining placement percentages.
Let’s closely look at the reasons behind IITs fading glory and potential solutions.
Declining IIT Placement Percentages: A Cause for Alarm
The latest statistics highlight a huge drop in hiring from various IITs. For example, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Roorkee have seen a fall of between 5 to 16 percentage points in recent years. The biggest downfall was registered by IIT Bombay, from 82% in 2022-23 to 75% in 2023-24. On the other hand, IIT Delhi has maintained a steady placement rate of around 84% to 85% in the same years.
This downward trend is supported by reports citing a 15-30% dip in recruitment offers for the 2024 batch in older IITs like Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Madras, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati, and Varanasi (BHU). Even students from traditionally popular streams, like computer science engineering, etc struggled with hiring.
Causes of the Mismatch
A number of key factors are responsible for the rising mismatch between IIT courses and industry needs:
Sudden Growth in Student Intake
Between 2020 and 2024, IITs have added around 1,440 seats to their intake. Although the rise was meant to provide more access to quality education, it had the unintended consequence of creating an oversupply of graduates. This increase has further increased competition for a limited number of available jobs, making placement more difficult.
Changing Industry Needs
The international job market has seen major changes, with a rising focus on inter-discipline and special skills. Today, industries are looking for specialized knowledge in the fields of artificial intelligence, data science, and sustainable technology. IIT graduates, though, are found to have general engineering skills, which do not meet the industry requirements.
Stifling Curriculum Structure
The traditional IIT curriculum has lagged behind the speed of technological innovation and industrial developments. Top global international institutions provide flexible, interdisciplinary programs while IITs tend to have strict, discipline-specific courses. This inability to evolve restricts students’ exposure to new domains and limits their readiness for modern industry problems.
Limited Industry Exposure
Surveys reveal that over 80% of Indian engineers are unaware of current industry requirements, primarily due to a theory-centric curriculum and insufficient practical training. Moreover, only 40% of engineering students secure internships, and just 36% engage in projects beyond their coursework. This lack of practical experience results in the employability gap among graduates.
Addressing the Curriculum-Industry Gap
To fill the gap between IIT education and industrial demands, the following steps can be taken:
Curriculum Reform: Reframing course plans to include newer technologies and interdisciplinary courses can prepare students more suitably for the contemporary job scenario.
Increased Industry Interface: Strengthening collaborations with industries to organize internships, workshops, and projects can offer students quality practical exposure.
Flexible Learning Pathways: The addition of elective courses and flexible program designs can enable students to customize their education to match changing industry trends.
Continuous Faculty Development: Investing in faculty development to keep up with technological changes is an important step. It will ensure that teachers can effectively transfer relevant knowledge and skills.
Conclusion
The falling placement rates in IITs point to the imporatnce of syncing the training curriculum of these institutions with the changing needs of the global job market. Through the adoption of course flexibility, industry partnerships, and practical training, IITs can prepare their students for successful careers.
The mismatch must also be addressed for the employment chances of IIT alumni. If IITs want to reclaim their fading glory as the top global institutions, it is high time they make changes according to what modern businesses want from the workforce in 2025.
