Anna University’s Main Engineering Colleges Placed 45.5% BTechs In 2020-21

The three engineering colleges that were brought together to form Anna University, Tamil Nadu, together had an average placement record of 45.5% in 2020-21 academic year, across branches.

Anna University has around 552 affiliated engineering colleges but four well-known technical institutions in Chennai that formed its foundation are College of Engineering (CEG), Alagappa College of Technology (ACTECH), Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) and School of Architecture and Planning.

Careers360 analysed placement data accessed through a Right to Information Application from the three engineering colleges, for the four-year BE and BTech courses they offer and found a dismal picture. Not only did large numbers of students not find jobs, the placement rate varies very widely across branches of engineering. This disappointing placement season could have been due to COVID-19’s impact on the economy and recruitment in 2020-21.

Of the three colleges, ACTECH offers the most BTech programmes and MIT and CEG in just one stream which are Information Technology and Manufacturing respectively. All other branches are offered as BE degrees.

BTech, BE Placements: CEG, ACTECH, MIT

The College of Engineering (CEG) is over 200 years old and one of the most established institutions of professional education in the country. Yet, its average placement percentage for all branches in 2020-21 is around 51 percent. Among the three colleges for the same academic year, Madras institute of technology(MIT) has the best average placement percent, 55%, while at Alagappa College of Technology(ACTECH), it is a dismal 17%.

From data shared by Anna University, the percentage of students placed was calculated out of those who registered for placement.

The chart below shows the 10 BE or BTech programmes from across colleges that had the best placement records in 2020-21. The CEG and MIT courses occupy all 10 positions; Apparel Technology had the best placement from ACTECH and would have placed just below CEG’s Biomedical Engineering.

Top 10 Placement Rates in three colleges of Anna University

Engineering Jobs: Under 20% Placed

The BTech programme in Leather Technology and Food Technology, started by ACTECH in 1980 and 2004 respectively, did not place a single student in 2020-21 although 53 students from leather technology and 33 students of food technology had registered for placement.

Even a core branch like Civil Engineering at CEG could place just seven students out of 49 students who opted for placement. The chart below shows the 10 branches, across institutions, that had the hardest time placing students.

Placements In BTech Core Branches

The three colleges together offer only five core engineering degree programmes with an average placement of 35.9 percent for the academic year 2020-21.

The Electrical and Mechanical Engineering students were able to score jobs more easily with the highest salary Rs 12 lakh per annum; the highest salary for Civil Engineering students was Rs 6 lakh.

Core Branch: Placement % and Salary In Rs Lakh

BTech In Tamil Medium

The CEG offers two BE degrees in Tamil-medium for core branches, Civil and Mechanical Engineering. The data clearly shows that engineering taught in the vernacular impacts employability — the Tamil-medium Civil Engineering programme at CEG placed just one out of the 40 students who registered for placements which translates into a placement rate of 2.5%. The salary was Rs 4.4 lakh.

Core Branch Placement: BTech In Tamil Medium

BTech Jobs: Popular Non-Core Branches

Popular non-core branches, most linked to the digital world, show placement percentages similar to some of the top engineering colleges in India.

The top five National Institutes of Technology (NIT) had an average median salary of Rs 9 lakh in 2019-20 while the Anna University colleges had an average salary of Rs 7 lakh in 2020-21. Median salary has significant weightage in the ranking of the colleges in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and Anna University was ranked at 18 in NIRF 2021, dropping from 14 in 2020.

Placement In Popular Non-Core Branches

Also Read | Top 10 Engineering Colleges In Tamil Nadu Placed 66% BTechs: Latest Data

BTech Salary: Highest And Lowest

The Computer Science and Engineering batch at CEG had the best placement percentage of 85.47 percent in 2020-21 and also the maximum salary per annum — Rs 20.5 lakh.

Top 5 Average Annual Salary

It is clear from the data that live placement rates, average salaries vary very widely across different branches of engineering. After Textile Technology, Chemical Engineering at ACTECH had the second-lowest average salary received by candidates, Rs 2.5 lakh.

Bottom 5 Average Annual Salary

BTech Jobs: Who Hired?

The number of companies that visited the campuses for placements decreased over three years. There has been a decrease of 15 percent in the number of companies since 2018-19.

Campus Placements: Top Recruiters Over 3 Years

The decrease in participating companies in 2020-21 could have been due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although the number of students placed rose.