OU's loss is JNTU's gain

The agitations for a separate Telangana state that occurred in the Osmania University campus have affected campus placements this academic year. OU Engineering College, which recorded 95 per cent placements last year, could only place half its students this time. Every year firms select engineering students in the first semester of their final year.

Of the 300 engineering students in the OU campus, only 150 have ended up getting jobs this time. IT firms usually visit the campus for selections in the month of December, but with the university closed for the last two months, none of the firms turned up.
Sources in the IT sector say that software firms are cautious about hiring students involved in agitations. They are even planning a five-year ban on students who have police cases pending against them.

OU authorities, however, are unwilling to blame the agitations for the fall in placements and are still optimistic that the placements will pick up. “I don’t think it is due to the Telangana agitation. It is true that there is a decrease in the number of job offers. We feel it is because of the economic slowdown. We feel the placements are slightly delayed and hope more students will be hired in the final semester,” said Dr Venugopal Reddy, principal, OU College of Engineering.

Osmania University’s loss turned into gain for Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), which has recorded a rise in the number of placement offers.
“We see more firms coming to hire our graduates. There is a 40 per cent increase in the number of job offers to our students over last year. Firms are visiting a few colleges as the situation is improving and the recession effect is fading away,” said Dr Lal Kishore, rector, JNTU-Hyderabad.