PUNE: Since last year, Amol Pol and his information technology firm have been struggling to recruit students from engineering colleges. The reason is that a majority of engineering students applying for job opportunities have scored above 90%. This trend of scoring high marks in semester examinations is in turn due to examinations being conducted online over the past two years by Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and other private universities in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. As most engineering students have scored above 90% and even average students have scored good marks, companies are now conducting special examinations to hire students through campus interviews.
Pol said, “We had job openings in our company for various posts and when we got the applications, 28 out of the 30-odd students who had applied had above 90% marks. Earlier, this number was less with hardly a few of the students being able to score such good marks. So we took a separate examination to recruit people.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, all semester examinations held by SPPU and other universities have been online. In addition to being online, the examinations have been conducted in the multiple-choice question (MCQ) format leading to many students scoring high marks. Earlier, many students were found cheating during these online exams but later, the exams were made stricter using the proctored method so that students would not cheat.
Parag Kalkar, SPPU dean, faculty of commerce and management studies, said, “In the last two years, it has been noticed that most students are scoring above 90% marks across streams, especially in engineering courses. So while hiring students, companies are facing difficulties in shortlisting candidates. This is impacting genuinely bright students as everyone is scoring high marks. Also, students are given 150 hours of work to be done every week, and they are ready to work for less as they are given the ‘work from home’ option.”
Satish Mistry, a student, said, “I have completed my Bachelor’s in computer science last year and as we have got a stamp of ‘Covid passed’ and exams were conducted online, there are a large number of students with high marks. When I apply for any job opening, there is strict scrutiny and separate exams are held by the recruiting companies. Getting jobs has become more difficult as compared to pre-Covid times.”
