The college administration decided to advance registrations for the second semester by a week this year, leading to a considerably shorter winter break and thereby reversing its own decision of postponing registrations to the second week of January four years ago. In an interview with the English Press Club, Prof M.S Dasgupta, Chief of The Placement Unit revealed that the change was made not for academic purposes as was generally presumed, but due to the scrapping of a “core window” during the placement season.

The core window was a ten-day period in December, when close to fifteen companies involved in core engineering fields were invited for an exclusive recruitment window during the placement season. The window was implemented in 2013, and was intended for students not placed in the first semester, interested students sitting in the second semester and the odd MBA candidate. The window had been provided due to the reluctance of core companies to recruit during the first semester recruitment period of August-October. Hence, a window was set up in late December to coincide with the conclusion of the recruitment process in the IITs.

While the idea was sound, results over the four years of its implementation were less than satisfactory. In the first year of its implementation, a limited number of companies were interested – a figure which only declined over successive years. The sister campuses in Goa and Hyderabad did not fare much better either, which also contributed to the eventual discontinuation of the core window.

A probable reason for this lack of success could be market uncertainty, which made it difficult to pin companies to a specific window of recruitment. Further, core companies started to prefer recruiting in the second semester as a matter of policy, which made the core window redundant. Companies visiting during the window also seemed dissatisfied, and were unwilling to return to campus in the following year. Over 60% of the companies needed to be replaced each cycle, which led to an unsustainable year-on-year company churn.

General policy liberalization also allowed unplaced students from the first semester to sit for interviews for a limited time either on campus, or at a company-chosen neutral venue. Students seemed to prefer this to the core window, and over thirty students were placed this way in the previous year alone. Further, some students were reluctant to wait for the window itself, and instead opted for slightly lower level jobs in the IT sector, passing over their core counterparts due to the higher salaries offered in IT.