A global analytics consultancy firm has withdrawn its job offer to 12 engineering students of Jadavpur University, citing constraints because of the economic downslide caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a university official said.

The company, headquartered in the US, had offered jobs to 12 students of the university’s computer science and engineering, electrical, information technology, metallurgy and construction engineering departments in its data analytics, marketing analytics wing last December.

The students had been promised a compensation package of Rs 7lakh per annum and were expected to join the firm in July after the publication of the final-semester results, a JU official said.

“Since the company focuses on areas such as innovative analytics, pricing analytics and predictive modelling, it had hired the the students for the analytics wing. The students were supposed to move to the company’s Bangalore office in the initial phase,” the official said.

The company contacted the students last Friday.

“The company, in its communication to the students last week, cited constraints in view of the economic scenario for withdrawing the offer,” Jadavpur University (JU) pro-vice chancellor Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya told Metro.

The company has been visiting JU for campus recruitment for four years.

A former student of the university, who holds a senior position in the company, had been behind the recruitment drive. He told a senior JU official that the company had stalled recruitment across the globe.

A professor of the electrical engineering department said it was worrying that students from such coveted streams as computer science and engineering and electrical engineering were being denied job offers.

“Companies make the best of offers to snap up the pick of the lot. But now they are being denied the offer,” said the professor. Three of the 12 students are from his department.

Other companies, too, must be facing similar crisis, another professor said, apprehending more such decisions. “We won’t be surprised if other companies follow suit. Either they would withdraw the offers or retain only a part of the offers made,” he said.

The news of job offers being withdrawn was an added blow, considering that some companies have already stopped internships offered to third-year BTech students because of the bleak scenario, a JU official said.

Internships often lead to job opportunities. But now a premier institute may be staring at a situation where its engineering graduates find no takers.

VC Suranjan Das said he has written to the company that has withdrawn job offers on Tuesday. “I certainly appreciate your constraints in view of the unprecedented global economic scenario caused by the corona pandemic…. I request you to push the joining date of the selected candidates by a few months. The problem is once a student is selected in the campus placement drive, he or she is not allowed to sit for the subsequent placement drive,” the letter states.

An official said JU is not alone. Job offers have been withdrawn at IIMs as well.

“The problem is no one knows when the situation would improve. Earlier we have seen that after a dry spell, the job scenario has improved in the subsequent year. But this time the uncertainty would not end easily,” he said.