HRD asks PSUs to reschedule campus recruitment

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has urged all boards of the central public sector units not to go for campus recruitment at the centrally-funded technical institutes including IITs and NITs in the middle of an academic session.

A large number of MTech students drop out within few months after getting admission to the master's programme at the premier technical institutes to grab the employment opportunity at the public sector units.

"The timing of the recruitment of the CPSE's (central public sector enterprise) recruitment process is normally overlapping to the admission dates of the post-graduate courses (ME/Mtech)," the ministry said in an official letter to the central boards of public sector units recently.

The ministry urged all public sector units to consider rescheduling their annual campus recruitment drive, keep "the issue" in their minds.

The GATE is conducted "primarily" for the purpose of determining a B Tech student's eligibility for "higher studies (MTech or ME), "not for recruitment to any posts in the public sector units," the ministry also stressed.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), which have been witnessing drop out of their M Tech students due to public sector units hiring them in the middle of their academic session.

Some of these premier technical institutes have raised the issue with the HRD ministry on various occasions, urging it to work out a solution.

While the IITs and various other technical institutes admit students to M Tech programme on the basis of their scores in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), public sector units also hire technocrats on the basis of their GATE scores.

"The interests of the premier institutions are marred as the students block the seats taking admission to M Tech programmes soon after the GATE results in March and later quit their studies half-way when they are offered a job at the PSUs (public sector units) during campus recruitment drive," an IIT faculty told DH.

The GATE is conducted jointly by the Indian  Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and the seven older IITs every year.