The students of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Sambalpur, have raised serious concerns over the alarming placement rate this academic session while the institute offered strong reassurance, backed by previous year statistics, stating that "all our students will be placed". It also stated that there is no official data regarding the current and ongoing placement season so far.
Regarding the same, a group of students sent an email to the IIM Sambalpur administration, including Director Mahadeo Jaiswal, urging an immediate resolution of the issue. In the email, the students highlighted that out of a total of 195 students, only about 65 students have secured placements, with a mere 30 receiving pre-placement offers. This leaves an unsettling number of 130 students anxiously awaiting opportunities, the email said. the screenshots of which were circulating online.
The students also added that the premium management institute lacks a competent placement officer and student support.
“This distressing situation not only affects individual aspirations but also significantly impacts the reputation of our esteemed institution. This is in stark contrast to our previous year's achievement, where by November, almost 70% of our senior batch had secured placements,” the students said.
Meanwhile, the peer IIMs like IIM Vizag, IIM Amritsar, IIM Sirmaur and IIM Jammu have all recorded much higher placement rates this year with more than 130 students getting placed in each institute.
With only 90 days left in the ongoing academic year, the students have urged the management to organise an open house meeting with the Director, Board of Governors, and Executive Committee within the next 48 hours to discuss and strategise on resolving the placement challenges.
Institute responds
On the other hand, IIM Sambalpur's Chair Placement, Anand Hindolia, told EdexLive that no official placement data has been disclosed thus far since the placement process is still ongoing.
“We firmly believe that all of our students will be placed, and just as we did with the previous batches in 2021, 2022, and 2023, we anticipate another fantastic placement season,” the institute responded.
The institute shared that this year, a total of 167 students are participating in the campus placement process with over 130 recruiting companies. So far, students have been placed with an average package of INR 16.63 LPA (lakh per annum), a median of INR 16 LPA, and the highest package of INR 64.61 LPA (domestic) and 64.15 LPA (international) with the top sectors being Sales and Marketing and General Management.
IIM Sambalpur further assured that it has recorded a good placement rate in the previous academic years as well and expects to continue the same trend.
Previous years' data
As per the information shared by IIM Sambalpur's placement cell, in 2021, a total of 95 students participated in the placement process with close to 140 companies visiting the campus. Students were placed with an average package of INR 11.21 LPA, a median of 10.35 LPA, and the highest being INR 21 LPA with the leading recruiting domains being Sales and Marketing (35.4%) and Information Technology (IT) and Analytics (19%).
Similarly, in 2022, 156 students in all, with over 130 recruiters took part in the placement season and extended over 240 offers. With the leading recruiting domains being IT/Systems (41.2%) and BFSI/NBFC (19.6%), students were placed with average packages of INR 13.20 LPA, median packages of INR 12.42 LPA, and highest packages of INR 41 LPA (international) and INR 26.19 LPA (domestic).
