Aiming high: Utkal University

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 9: Tech titans have now set their eyes on the Utkal University, the state’s premier educational institution after having run through the recruitment drive in engineering colleges.

The placement session at the university is scheduled to begin from October 11 with the first day being reserved for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the information technology wing of the Tata group of industries.

“This year, we would be starting our placement drive with TCS, which has been visiting us for almost two decades now. We have written to several companies to come for campus recruitment so that students get maximum opportunities and can weigh their options accordingly,” said Sarit Panda, placement officer of the university. He, however, did not divulge the number of companies that have been invited.

Sixty students have been shortlisted by the authorities for the TCS placements as per the company’s eligibility criteria, which include a first division (60 per cent) career record. These students belong to the post-graduation courses of MCA, integrated MCA, M.Sc. (computer science) and M.E. (knowledge engineering).

The pre-employment training by all the departments is going on in full swing, Panda said. “TCS takes very few students every year. Therefore, we are trying to groom our students and hope that we surpass last year’s recruitment figures,” he said.

In January, TCS had recruited 10 students from the university, eight of whom were from the integrated MCA course, for an annual pay package of Rs 3.3 lakh.

Sources said management and telecom companies, banks, the Indian Air Force (which visited the campus in February) and Indian Army among others have also evinced interest in recruiting students from Utkal.

“In comparison to window-period offers, more spot offers were being given by the recruiting companies these days. A spot offer is one where the company asks the student to accept it or leave it, while the window-period offer is when the student is given a specific time period to mull over it,” said an official of the university.

The university has plans to begin a training centre to prepare students for the job market, which would run coaching classes for civil services, and to crack banking, Railway Recruitment Board and Staff Selection Commission exams. A permanent placement cell, which operates from the MCA department at present, is expected to come up at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh beside the PG Council building.