Bhubaneswar, March 17: As many as 150 students pursuing various courses at Utkal University were offered jobs in a campus recruitment drive that has been going on for the last three months.

In a fresh trend, however, the varsity has seen companies preferring graduates to postgraduates this time.

“Wipro, Mahindra Satyam and Tata Consultancy Services have expressed interest in hiring our graduates. These companies not only train students, but also allow them to take up courses in higher education,” said chairman of the varsity’s postgraduate council P.K. Mishra.

However, it has been noticed that despite job offers, about 90 per cent students of physics, chemistry, biochemistry, mathematics and statistics prefer to go for higher studies.

“Coca Cola wanted to conduct placement tests for our chemistry students. But, it did not work out as the students were not interested in taking up jobs at this stage,” he said.

Last year, 23 companies had hired 231 students from 24 postgraduate departments of the varsity. This year, Tata Consultancy Services hired 12 students, while voluntary organisation Pradan and tech company Mahindra Satyam hired 16 and nine students respectively. Wipro and Infosys have recruited 23 students, while those pursuing integrated MCA and MSc computer science programmes have received offer letters from Syntel, Fedobe and I-Gate.

Six chemistry students have received job offer in TCG Lifesciences, while CP Aquaculture has hired six more.

Discoventure, Aditya Birla group, Bank of Baroda, Harsha group, XL Dynamics, Capital IQ Chegg and Talent Beats also hired some students of the varsity. Despite the impressive achievement, authorities did not rule out the effects of economic slowdown.

“Small and medium-level companies have slowed down on hiring, leaving us with fewer recruiters this year,” said Mishra, adding that they were, expecting more recruitment in the subsequent phases.