Bhubaneswar, June 25: The 2013 batch of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, secured 510 jobs during a month-long campus placement drive.

“A total of 540 B.Tech students had appeared for the placement tests. They have registered over 94 per cent placements with 510 students landing jobs in reputed companies,” said Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal, mechanical engineering professor, who heads the placement cell of NIT-Rourkela.

On an average, each student has bagged two job offers, while 70 per cent of M.Tech students had also got jobs, he added.

Eight students have even got international placements.

Around 86 headhunters had visited the campus this time. The companies included IT giants such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Epic, Tata Steel and public sector units such as Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Considering the interest of students in the automobile sector, companies such as Maruti, Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra also visited the campus.

Epic offered an annual package of Rs 55 lakh to a student, which was the highest this year. “The average annual salary is Rs 5 lakh,” said Biswal.

Authorities, however, blamed the economic downturn for lower average salaries this year. The average salary in previous years stood at Rs 8 lakh, which has fallen to Rs 5 lakh this year, said institute sources.

“Economic Recession, public interest litigations (PILs) against the PSUs visiting our campus for direct recruitment and some other factors have affected the placements this year. Companies such as Coal India, National Thermal Power Corporation and a few others did not visit the campus due to the PILs,” said Biswal.

Officials said quite a few students had decided to skip the placement tests as they were eager to pursue higher studies and undertake research work.