All NU depts, colleges to have placement cells

Nagpur: Taking cognizance of a series of TOI’s reports on absence of placement cell in a majority of Nagpur University’s departments and three colleges, the NU administration has decided to establish them in all departments shortly.
A decision in this regard was taken in a recent meeting of NU Management Council where registrar Puran Meshram submitted a proposal with TOI reports stressing the need to have placement cells to act as a catalyst between students and employers.

Citing RTI reply to senior activist Abhay Kolarkar, TOI on October 26, 27 and 29, disclosed that NU didn’t have a “placement cell” at all in any department and three colleges. It also didn’t have any data of how many students are placed, either through campus or their own terms.

“The council members unanimously cleared the proposal of setting up placement cells. It was decided to hand over the charge for a temporary period to heads of department.

“They would be assisted by the senior teacher who would be responsible or its day-to-day running. The non-teaching staff would look after administrative work,” Meshram told TOI.

TOI had also reported that post of LIT’s training and placement officer was vacant for over two years since SP Ghisal retired on April 29, 2015. Meshram clarified that NU had started efforts to appoint a full-fledged placement officer for all its departments and HODs would coordinate with him for contacting the companies.

Only two NU departments — Business Management and Pharmacy — and one college — Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT) — conduct placements on their own without administration’s help. Even the NU’s industrial robotics diploma course, started with much fanfare at ‘Oberoi Centre of Excellence’, had failed to place even a single student of its first batch.

TOI had reported about how chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s dream project for his alma mater, started with the help of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi, had failed to attract companies.

Though NU offers a variety of innovative and in-demand courses like mass communication, travel and tourism, and archaeology among others, they failed to properly market them. A

cademicians say because of this neither the students prefer these courses, nor the companies approach NU for recruitment.

On the other hand, same courses offered by the private institutes attract full strength, just because they market them aggressively while tagging placement figures.

TOI had also exposed how NU vice-chancellor SP Kane was unaware of who was looking after charge of training and placement officer.

He had told TOI that Physics Department professor Sanjay Dhoble was handed this charge that the latter denied. He clarified he was just working as career counsellor for the students and never made any placement, neither had any record of it.