Bengaluru engineering college accused of withholding student’s certificate for refusing to pay 2.1% of CTC as ‘Placement Cell Fee’

“My college requires me to pay 2.1% of my CTC and they’ve termed it as “Placement Cell Fee”. This payment wasn’t mentioned before and now they’re withholding all my certificates and it’s hindering my further procedures with my company,” he posted.

“However, they won’t produce any document or circular where it mentions this clause of making this payment, post my placement,” he continued.

“They’re only telling me verbally and are forcing me to pay. Also context, I’m not even earning yet, I just graduated but they want me to pay 2.1% of CTC. I’ve heard they’ve done this in the past to my seniors who’ve been placed. It’s there anything I can do about this,” he sought to know.

An engineering student in Bangalore complains on Reddit that his college placement Cell is demanding 2.1% of CTC and holding his certificates hostage.

The institute is named in the thread.

Any journos want to investigate?https://t.co/Js2HD7akrm

— Madhu Menon (@madmanweb) June 17, 2023

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College gets support

The post went viral on social media with netizens sharing information on other colleges they claimed were charging fees based on the number of offers made to students through the Placement Cell.

The college also reportedly charged a “Personality Development Programme Fee” of ₹12,000, a Twitter user posted.

Supporting the college management, a netizen stated: “Before shaming college do ur due diligence. Every university charges placement registration fees. Which is absolute amount not % of CTC. It is misrepresented by this student. Placement registration fees is mainly for carrying out placement related exp. Students too r part of this. [sic]”

Another netizen felt charging a fee was normal in many colleges. “Even I paid 50% of one month’s pay about 17 years ago.”

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Standard operating procedure?

Another Twitter user disagreed. “This is definitely not the norm. I am hearing this practice for first time,” he said.

An alumnus of the college said he paid 50 percent of his one month’s salary. “I was a computer science engineering student of the 2016 batch. I landed a job and was expected to pay 50% of my 1 month salary (about ₹12500) in exchange for releasing my final semester marks card. [sic]”

Another Twitter user did not find any fault with the college. “What is the big deal if the placement cell of the college charges 2-3%fee from placed candidates? Would be wary of employing candidates who complain on such trivial matters. “Attitude issues. [sic]”

South First’s attempts to get in touch with the college management failed. Neither the principal nor the director of the Placement Cell was available for comments, the college office said.

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