New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, has recorded its highest ever number of pre-placement offers for its students, according to the institute's officials.

As many as 227 pre-placement offers (PPOs) have been made to IIT-Madras students during the 2021-22 academic year as against 186 offers during the entire 2020-21 academic year.

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The PPOs will continue to be made till the commencement of phase one of campus placements, which is scheduled on December 1.

The number of PPOs in 2019-20, 2018-19, 2017-18 and 2016-17 was 170, 135, 114 and 73 respectively.

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Explaining the factors behind the increase in PPOs this year, CS Shankar Ram, advisor (training and placement), IIT-Madras, said, "The internship process provides a good opportunity for companies to evaluate our students who intern with them over an extended period of time."

"It also helps our students to learn more about the company, the roles that they may be offered and potential career prospects," Ram said.

PPOs are a natural outcome of this interaction that is a win-win for both companies and students, he said .

"We are happy to note the continuing strong performance of our students in this regard and hope to extend this to first phase placements," Ram said.

Ram confirmed that the number of PPOs received in the ongoing academic year 2021-2022 is the highest in the institute till date.

Sathyan Subbiah, advisor (internships), IIT Madras said, "The internship process transforms the student from class-room ready to real-world placement ready," he said.

The internship office continues its intended role in this transformation by linking companies with students early on, giving them a chance to test each other, while also meeting curricular needs, Subbiah said.

"Shaped by curricular and extra-curricular experiences at IIT-Madras, our students are excelling in their internships. This has given enough confidence in the companies leading to pre-placement offers," he said

Among the major recruiters were Qualcomm, Microsoft, Honeywell, Texas Instruments and Goldman Sachs.

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