As 2025 draws to a close, we at Campusutra.com reflect on a year that has been both inspiring and challenging for higher education in India.
The brighter side of the year has been that some Indian institutions achieved historic visibility:
- IIM Kozhikode debuted in the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings 2025, secured positions in the QS World University Rankings, and reinforced India’s global academic presence. Read
- IIM Ahmedabad celebrated its 60th Convocation while announcing a new Dubai campus
- IIM Bangalore marked its 50th Convocation with nearly 800 graduates.
- MDI, XLRI, SPJIMR IMT, IMI enters FT Rankings Read
- ISB tops in FT Executive Ranking in India Read
- More than 20 Indian B Schools is now accredited by globally renowned International Accreditations like AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS Read
- Jadavpur University, BITS Pilani, VIT, SRM, Manipal among others started ranking in Global Rankings like QS Global Ranking – Engineering and Shanghai Global Rankings for Academics
- International collaborations flourished, with Western Sydney University opening a campus in Greater Noida. In fact more than 25 Global Universities have now set up (or about to set up) campuses in India. Read
Yet 2025 also reminded us of the stark realities in widening gap in employability, the urgent need for policy reforms, industry-academia alignment, and humane environments. While India’s higher education ecosystem is gaining global recognition, the employment landscape remains fragile, the desperation and dignity challenges facing India’s youth.
- Placement struggles at many management and engineering institutions further exposed the widening gap between marquee schools and regional colleges, where many graduates continue to face underwhelming job opportunities, delayed placement cycles and even offer letters which were later cancelled. IITs took a stand by blacklisting some of these recruiters. Read.
- 2025 also witnessed disturbing scenes of student unrest at VIT Bhopal, where thousands of students protested against inadequate basic facilities such as drinking water, food quality, and hygiene. This incident underlines the urgent need for accountability and reforms in campus management.
- The Odisha recruitment incident, where hundreds of aspirants were made to sit on the airstrip for a handful of vacancies, symbolized the desperation and dignity challenges facing India’s youth.
The “Great AI Realignment”, where automation and generative AI redefined roles, leaving professionals uncertain about their futures.
- The corporate sector added its own turbulence when India’s IT industry witnessed one of its most disruptive years in a decade. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) downsized thousands of employees amid an AI-driven restructuring, while other firms also trimmed headcount.
As we step into 2026, we remain committed to amplifying stories that matter, celebrating milestones, spotlighting challenges, and fostering dialogue that bridges aspiration with reality. We thank you for trusting Campusutra as your compass in this dynamic landscape.
To our guest authors, your voices have enriched our platform with diverse perspectives and authentic experiences.
We wish to express our sincere and profound gratitude to all !
Warm regards,
Editor, Campusutra.com
Some of the top Pics 2025
2025 – The Year of Future
💫The year 2024 kicked off with a remarkable milestone in the path of Campusutra’s journey so far. A case study on Campusutra.com was published in the esteemed Ivey Publications in the month of Feb’24.
💫 Rigorous research, conducted by three distinguished faculty members over a year, involving countless hours of dedicated work, included late-night meetings after long tiring days. Their relentless hard work, data specific approach and commitment towards value creation has resulted in the acceptance of their paper by Ivey Publications at one go. This significant achievement of their efforts shall underscore the journey of campusutra.com and provide valuable insights for students and researchers in top B Schools of 168+ nations. Big shout out for Prof. N. Chandrasekaran, (Professor, Operations Management at IFMR GSB, Krea University) Prof. Indira Ananth (Former faculty of Economics at LIBA now into independent research) and Prof. Sathya Saminadan (Faculty of Marketing at IFMR GSB, Krea University; Professor of Practice).
💕We are incredibly proud & happy to be a part of the research work and contribute to the learning process of the students fraternity.
💫 Here’s a glimpse into how we showed up in 2024: As we wrap up another remarkable year, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our stakeholders—students, faculty members, partner institutes, industry — for being an integral part. We are Grateful!
💕A 31% growth over the past year in reaching out to students in their journey to explore options for programmes and colleges, career insights, academic updates, and future opportunities.
💕 Several new collaborative initiatives were signed with partner institutes towards enriching and mentoring students towards developing themselves for the dynamic demands of the industry. We would like to have more such tie-ups in the coming year.
💕Decade old associations : Some of the esteemed and top institutes of India continued to bestow their trust on us for more than a decade now. We are grateful to be a part of their success stories
💕We are also grateful to the Directors, VCs, Faculty members and academic leaders who contributed to enrich the knowledge base and share their insights on higher education and emerging trends in our platforms.
➡️ As we look ahead to the Year 2025, we strongly feel this year could define the ‘Path to the Future’. New skills. New Approach. What we have witnessed so far is probably the tip of the iceberg. What is going to come up could be a complete game changer of what we do and how we do.
➡️Curated here are selective stories from the long list of rich content published by us in 2024 which has always been an unfair and difficult proposition.
🎉Thank you for being with us. Wishing you a prosperous and successful year ahead! Keep Learning! Keep Sharing!
MBA Story
Engineering Story
The year that was - 2022.
We are thankful to all of you for being with us. For having faith in us.
After two long years of struggle and hopelessness and an equally bad Jan 2022 with Omicron reeling over, we forayed into 2022 with full rigour from Feb onwards.
Campusutra touched upon 44 million hearts in 2022. Out of which 70% has been organic. This has been one of our best so far. Tremendous efforts by the team. Not that our every idea clicked, we failed in a few areas. We learnt.
We are grateful to all – students, institutes, faculties, patrons, wellwishers.
Great comebacks were witnessed across campuses in the nation.
- Highest salary offered at IIT Bombay has been a whopping Rs. 3.7 Crore ! (Verified as per the official report of the institute) The highest ever in the country according to our reports.
- More than 200 students received a package of Rs 1 crore and above. Again a new high.
- IIT Patna broke all placement records in B.Tech Computer Science with Average salary of 2022 B Tech CSE at Rs. 38.5 LPA. Higher than other IITs and IIITs.
- VIT Vellore for the first time received Rs. 1 cr plus package in Computer Science.
- And not just B Tech CSE, B Tech ECE & B Tech EEE branches also received packages running into Crores. Rs. 1.2 Crore offer was rolled out at NIT Jalandhar and Rs. 1.6 Crore at NIT Patna and others.
NOTE : All figures above are verified from official channels (received from the college or published officially) by team campusutra. Reports published in mainstream news media about offers with higher packages, are not being considered due to lack of clarity and any official validation.
Management Studies
- Highest package offered at IIM Ahmedabad has been Rs. 1.16 Cr and at MDI Gurgaon 1.14 Crore which was the highest among the private B Schools of the country.
- More than 7 B Schools’ average salary went up to Rs 30 LPA and above (IIMA, IIM B, IIM C, IIML, XLRI, SPJIMR, FMS and ISB)
- Overall there was optimism among all campuses as the Average CTCs went up. Average salaries jumped by more than 20% in 30+ B Schools while a jump of 15-20% was witnessed in the average salaries of 100+ Management Institutes of the country.
Wish you all a very healthy, happy and happening year ahead!
Top picks
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Can we go back to the old normal ?
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2021. Last year’s annual editorial note was about how we have become resilient, adaptable, and supportive. Looking back, all that seems so far from the reality that we faced during the year 2021.
Least we knew back in Jan 2021, that the worst was yet to come. April and May 2021 witnessed the horrible massacre of human lives by the virus, when almost half of COVID deaths in India happened, according to the NCDC. We do not have any data of the number of deaths that may not have happened due to COVID but due to the collapse of the entire medical infrastructure during these dreadful months. SOS messages for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, helplessness, hopelessness, sirens of ambulances, prevailed.
We lost our loved ones. One of our team members and his wife was lucky to survive after a long battle.
Things looked up. With vaccinations taking place on a mass scale, universities and colleges started opening up in Oct ’21. Light at the end of the long dark tunnel was finally visible which started instilling hope once again.
Virtual placements sessions turned out to be good for most top engineering and management institutes. Many IITs and NITs broke all previous records with job offers of Rs. 1-2 Crores per annum, pouring in.
We look forward to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. Let’s not let our guards down.
Life is precious. Let us not forget those horrific pictures of serpentine que outside cremation grounds and dead bodies floating in rivers. We may or may not go back to ‘old normal’ soon but let’s not repeat April-May 2021 again.
May you have an amazing year 2022! Stay healthy. Stay positive and test negative.
Rewind 2021 – Top Picks of 2021.
Management (MBA/ PGDM/ B Schools)
- FT Global MBA ranking 2021 : ISB tops in India, 3rd in Asia
- MBA Colleges Accepting NMAT Score 2021 (Based on ROI 2020)
- IIM A alumnus Srikant Datar appointed as new Dean at Harvard
- 102 recruiters came to IIMU for SIP for the batch 2022
- Check out 15 Popular Choice .NITIE, SPJIMR, IIFT ahead of XLRI & MDI
- Recalibrating the ‘MBA’ for better alignment with the recruiter
- Positive Impact Rating 2021: Reimagining Management Education
- How relevant is Management education in the online world ?
- XAT Exam pattern 2022 Changed: Total time reduced
- NIRF Rankings 2021 Management: IIM A tops Again
- IIMs and or Non-IIMs ?
Engineering (IIT, NIT/ B. Tech)
- IIT Bombay, Delhi among top 50 in QS Asia Rankings 2022
- IIT placement 2022 season starts with a bang
- VITEEE 2022 Application: Registration Begins For B. Tech program
- IIT Patna Placement 2022. 37 PPOs Received
- IISc, Bangalore joins the Melbourne-India Postgraduate Academy
- 20% Jump in Campus Jobs at top Tamil Nadu engineering colleges
- New Syllabus for JEE Advanced 2023: IIT Entrance Exam
- IIT GN win Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Awards 2021
- JEE Advanced 2020 Candidates Demand Third Attempt in 2022
- IIT Guwahati Ties up with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for Research, Academics
- BITS Pilani placement 2021. Average salary offered is INR 15.6 LPA
–2020 – The year that made us resilient, adaptable, supportive & virtual.
Allow me to start this last note of the year with a THANK YOU to all of you for connecting, supporting, caring for each other in this stressful year.
The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the darkest year for us in our collective existence. From massive wildlife destruction in Australia to widespread protests against racism in the U.S to a pandemic that killed more than a million and a half people across the globe, leaving 10 times more the number jobless and schools, colleges, universities, workplaces shut for months.
We have come across tragic news of the untimely death of someone in our circles, someone who has lost a job or has been in deep distress. But all that has made us all more resilient according to a study by HBR. The study suggests men, women and kids across the world (essentially irrespective of gender, age or demography) have displayed higher levels of resilience when exposed to fear of the unknown or threat. ‘The more tangible the threat, the more resilient we become’.
We are also more adaptable today. ‘Learnbility’ and ‘learnagility’ levels have gone up. Maybe there wasn’t any option.
We would also take the opportunity to express our gratitude to all those who have continued to have faith in us in these trying times. Amidst all the chaos, the forced screen-time (courtesy online classrooms, virtual meetings, OTTs) the silver lining for us is – the average stay time in our portal has increased significantly. So, keep posting your campus updates. We shall continue to offer the free listing opportunity.
We may be happy to bid goodbye to 2020 however the masks are not going away soon. Nor is the caller tune of Big B. A typical working day will continue to start with “Good Morning, am I audible ?”. Online teaching and virtual classes are also here to stay. In fact a host of new online programmes & courses are being introduced. Some of which offer real value and at a price point which is cost effective, making quality education affordable and available. Another silver lining.
A new year brings new hopes. We are all in this together, trying to figure out how to stay afloat. Our boats may vary in size but we are in the same ocean. Thank you all once again.
Happy New Year! Stay protected.
The Year that was – Editor’s pick :
Top Picks of May 2020
April 01, 2020.
How many times did we come across the term VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) in the past couple of years in every seminar or strategic planning meetings or managerial write-ups? And as the term VUCA suddenly becomes reality – blatantly stares at us, we are caught unaware. Anxious moments grip us. We wonder was the world really VUCA before this?
Some say ‘Fear is in the air’. I feel this is a huge learning opportunity.
Responsibility, accountability, bonding and to reflect upon the evolution of civilization, is in the air. Talking of air, literally there has been a phenomenal change in air. Air has never ever been so fresh and clean for decades. Imagine AQI of Delhi was recorded on the Mar 28 th at 45. Our lungs are surprised and so are the Dolphins spotted in Mumbai shores.
Universities, Schools and Institutes across the globe are now experiencing online class-rooms with students and stakeholders social distancing while working from remote locations. We were happy to know from many in the academia that our early reports, polls, were useful in planning. The guidelines on remote working shared before the lock down was announced, was also handy during implementation.
Our productivity is at 100%. In fact our responses to queries are faster now.
We saw it coming and following other organisations in IT/ITeS, we too started working from home from Mar 18 th as we felt travelling in Metro, Ola/Uber/Auto-ricks was making us vulnerable and social distancing was the only way to be safe and make others safe.
The best thing is we have even received pay checks during this lockdown . We profusely thank accounts departments of our partner institutes making this possible during lock down.
Anxious moments will remain but stay positive. Stay isolated and safe.
Market correction will happen. Industry will bounce back. Things will start getting better. Meanwhile, go for online courses, work-out indoors to stay fit, watch Netflix / Amazon Prime, learn new things or just make a TikTok video.
Let us stay calm and carry on. learn new things or just make a TikTok videohs
Do write back, connect with us. Keep your queries and messages coming.
Top Picks of Mar 2020
Wishing you all successful and Happy New Year – 2020!
Published as on Dec 29, 2019. As we get ready to bid adieu to last year in the “teens” and usher in a new decade, we take a moment to reflect within. While anytime is a good time to reflect, this time of the year seems to be more apt for some self-introspection on what has been accomplished, learned, experienced.
We believe in organic growth: Connect to our audience always been based on relevance – those who find campusutra.com helpful in their journey to pursue higher education. And this year 81% of our visitors were organic with an average stay time of close to 3 minutes (7–10 min in certain pages). And this we are talking about a generation with an average attention span between 8 to 12 seconds depending on area of interest. Campaigns for our partners were run selectively and specifically as per intake requirements. We have been flooded with responses, direct messages, queries in WhatsApp, Messenger and various forum maintained by us!
And yes, we have also received donations starting from Rs. 500 to Rs. 10,000.00! Every single donation is significant and very important for us both in terms of financial assistance and motivation. This, to us is a massive validation of the good work, huge inspiration for us to continue with the hard work and to stick to our commitments of offering unbiased, factual information, data and real stories. We appreciate and thank you for your continuous support and patronage
Our apologies to all who may not been able to see the site for few days in December 1st week. The site was 
hacked and the sole intent of hacking was to stop people from reaching out to campusutra.com. Reason for many of you to land in a page which displayed error, for few days. People who directly visited the site were however able to view and access. We came back stronger with our commitments, ethics and objectives intact. We continue to strive hard to be the most appreciated, valued and respected education portal offering honest, authentic and real information.
A big THANKS to the students community, patrons, partners and well-wishers who kept inspiring us in this journey. This means a lot to us.
Let your feedback, queries, comments, donations, love, compliments and criticism pouring in.
Top 20 Picks of 2019
Wishing you all successful and Happy New Year – 2019
Published as on Dec 29, 2018. While we cannot wait to step into the new beginnings and as we wrap up 2018, we would like to take a moment and thank you for your continuous support.
The year 2018 has been really exciting as we were able to reach out to 4 million readers and that too organically!
We also managed to stick to our commitment to students and readers of not placing any banners in the HOME Page!!
A big big THANKS to all our readers and well-wishers who kept inspiring us in this journey. This means a lot to us.
The coming year looks even more promising. We are not into numbers game and remain firmly committed to our readers particularly the students community. We continue to strive hard to be the most appreciated, valued and respected education portal offering factual data, portraying real picture and actual story.
Wishing you all wonderful festive season and a Happy New Year! Seek your patronage and love as always. Your feedback, ideas, comments are important to us. Compliment and criticism are welcome at connect@campusutra.com
