Indian universities’ careers offices need to be judged on more than salaries and placement rates, higher education leaders have said, as employers increasingly look for graduates who can adapt quickly to changing roles rather than simply secure a first job.

Institutions are under pressure to show they can secure employment for graduates, but headline statistics often fail to capture what employers now value most, a webinar organised by consultancy firm Jetri heard on 11 March.

Pramath Sinha, a partner at the firm, said the labour market was hiring aggressively, with lots of new roles being made available.

Citing labour market data, he said that “73 per cent of employers intend to hire freshers this year”, while the India Skills Report found that organisations projected “40 per cent of total planned hires to be new roles in the coming financial year, up from 29 per cent last year”.

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This, he said, had created a growing disconnect between what institutions prepared students for and “what the world is actually becoming”.

Priyanka Chandhok, head of career advancement at Ashoka University, said placement figures remained important because they act as “a measurable snapshot of outcomes” and signal “institutional credibility really for our students and parents”.

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Ashoka “do[es] talk about 100 per cent placements”, she said, but added that “our success really lies in creating lifelong learners, ethical leaders and more importantly, conscious citizens”.

She said careers work begins well before final recruitment. At Ashoka, students go through “a very intense career preparatory programme” from the start of their time at university, aimed at building awareness of different career paths and helping them prepare for roles that may be less obvious than traditional corporate jobs.

Chandhok said employers were “increasingly now moving towards…students who bring in diverse skill sets and interdisciplinary thinking”, adding that “the entry barrier is really moving from pure academic achievement to a more holistic evaluation”.

She also said some employers had initially been reluctant to recruit liberal arts graduates, but that feedback from alumni performance had helped change perceptions. “The proof of the pudding lies in its eating,” she said. “Our students have done well.”

At the Indian School of Business, Somedutta Chatterjee, head of career advancement services, said compressed postgraduate formats left little room for trial and error.

ISB’s main one year MBA programme, she noted, is “a fast-paced rigorous 11-month programme”, meaning students do not have “the luxury of internships”. 

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That has made early career clarity and closer employer engagement more important.

Chatterjee said recruiters no longer looked only for “potential”; instead, “they look for readiness”. Because job descriptions are changing so quickly, employers want to know “what is the attitudinal and behavioural difference that an individual can bring”.

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She said recruiters hiring MBA graduates also wanted evidence of clearer self-understanding and more credible career pivots. “They want clarity of thought,” Chatterjee said. “They want authenticity.”

At Plaksha University, Srabani Ghosh, head of corporate partnerships and careers, said building employer trust from scratch had required intensive outreach. In the institution’s early years, “we met with at least…600 companies”, she said, as recruiters told the university they wanted to wait for more graduating batches before hiring.

But Ghosh said employers were now looking for more than technical competence. “Technical fundamentals remain non-negotiable,” she said, but companies also wanted graduates who could “work at the intersection of technology and business” and communicate technical ideas to non-technical colleagues.

In that context, she argued, placement reports flatten crucial differences. Two students may land similar jobs on paper, Chatterjee noted, but the roles may demand very different levels of breadth, judgement and resilience.

The panel also argued that institutions should give equal weight to outcomes beyond direct employment.

Chandhok said Ashoka had expanded its reporting to include higher education destinations as well as jobs, while Ghosh said universities must ensure that “all student outcomes are celebrated equally”.

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Asked to identify one skill employers increasingly demand, Ghosh pointed to “adaptability and agility”, while Chatterjee highlighted technological awareness as a core competency. Chandhok emphasised “first principles thinking” – the ability to tackle unfamiliar problems even without prior training.

tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com