Campus hiring is one of the most popular ways to get jobs at the entry level. But companies sometimes do not honour their job offers.The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have decided to stop cooperating with 22 companies in campus recruitment for the next two placement seasons after the firms failed to honour job offers made to students graduating in 2026.The move comes as the IITs prepare for another placement cycle at a time when technology companies are hiring cautiously and entry-level recruitment remains uncertain.
‘Non-cooperation’ with 22 companies
The decision was taken earlier this month at a meeting of the All IITs Placement Committee (AIPC) at IIT-Guwahati. The AIPC is the central body that coordinates placement and internship guidelines across the IITs. The committee will write to the companies by September 30 to formally communicate the decision, according to an ET report.The panel has chosen not to use the term “blacklisting” for the action. Instead, the IITs will describe it as “non-cooperation”.More than 150 offers across 23 IITs are involved in the cases, with some companies withdrawing between 10 and 15 offers, AIPC convenor and IIT-Guwahati associate professor John Jose told ET. He did not disclose the names of the companies involved.Campus sources, however, told the financial daily that Oracle is among the companies facing non-cooperation for two years, after it reportedly failed to honour around 40 offers made across IITs.The US enterprise software company, which has cut thousands of jobs globally this year, including in India, did not respond to an email from the financial daily seeking its comments. Globally, IT companies have been laying off employees as part of AI-driven restructuring as some roles become redundant.Oracle has not approached the IITs for recruitment so far this year, Jose said.The committee is yet to finalise the list of companies and the total number of offers that were not honoured. These details are expected to be compiled once individual IITs submit the latest status of their respective cases. Several startups are also part of the list.The AIPC had given companies until September 15 to onboard students to whom they had extended offers.“We have made a decision that by September 30, we will write an email telling these companies that we are not going to be cooperating for recruitments for the next two years,” said Jose.Last year, individual IITs took up the issue directly with companies that had failed to honour the offers made to students. This time, the correspondence will be sent by the AIPC on behalf of all the IITs, Jose said. “Last year, about 10-11 companies had not honoured offers. This year’s figure is the highest in recent years.”The committee is also working to reduce the fallout for students who were left without jobs after their offers were withdrawn. Placement offices at various IITs have shared the CVs of these students with companies that are already recruiting on campus, requesting them to consider the affected candidates for vacancies.Jose said an estimated 20-30% of the students in this group were able to secure jobs through these cross-referrals. There is, however, no complete data on how many students are still looking for employment.Some may have secured positions independently through off-campus recruitment or their own personal contacts without updating their respective IIT placement offices.“Once students graduate, maintaining a complete record of their employment status becomes difficult,” said Jose.The AIPC’s decision is intended to deal with the immediate consequences for students whose offers were withdrawn, while also seeking to protect the credibility of job offers made through the IIT campus placement system.