Ranchi, Feb. 4: For students of Xavier Institute of Social Sciences (XISS) it’s time to rejoice. For, they have achieved another feat today.

They have been offered as high as Rs 7 lakh a year — a figure not seen till date by students of the department.

The average offer they would get this year is about Rs 3 lakh — just a bit lower than last year’s highest Rs 3.45 lakh per annum. Last year, the average pay package was paltry Rs 1.5 lakh.

Three houses — SKS Micro-finance (Hyderabad), FES (Anand), Development Support Agency of government of Gujarat — were among the groups, who held interviews with students for recruitment.

While SKS Micro-finance is learnt to have offered a package of Rs 7 lakh per annum, the highest so far, the others have offered around Rs 6.5 lakh. “The government, corporate houses and the funding agencies have now started focusing on development of the society. Thus, job opportunity in social sector has opened up manifold,” said M.H. Ansari, the head of the department.

He said social sector has not only witnessed increase in job opportunities but also the pay package of the personnel in this sector also has become “more attractive”.

Other houses, which have lined up programme to visit the campus, include Srijan (New Delhi), SRKPS (Rajasthan), Nirman Bharati (Uttar Pradesh), Vedanta (Orissa), Basix (Ranchi), IDE (Delhi), Seva Bharati (Delhi), Samaj Pragati Sahyog Sansthan (Madhya Pradesh), Aid-Et Action (Hyderabad) among others.

The campus recruitment will continue till February 23.

“Last year, we had 100 per cent placement in the department. This year too, we expect the same target but with a thicker pay package,” said XISS director Beni Ekka.

The personnel management department has got good offer with 43 of its 60 students being recruited from campus. The highest pay package (Rs 8 lakh per annum) in this department has also gone up by about Rs 3 lakh as compared to last year. Placement for students of finance and marketing department has also begun.