LUCKNOW, June 23 -- Combined recruitment at the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), across four major streams-B Tech, B Pharma, MBA, and MCA-grew from 20,811 students in the 2022-23 academic year to 22,485 in 2024-25, marking an overall gain of 1,674 placements. While graduate numbers may have fluctuated, recruitment in most streams stayed strong, with core sectors continuing to absorb qualified candidates in large numbers. B Tech remains the university's major contributor to recruitment volume, though it experienced a brief contraction. BTech placements dropped from 14,689 in 2022-23 to 13,303 in 2023-24 before bouncing back to 14,114 by 2024-25. Despite the recovery, final year numbers remained lower than the three-year peak. While the graduates in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 were 31,861, 30,800 and 29,549, respectively. This reveals that at least 46.09%, 43.19% and 47.76% graduating students were placed in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, respectively. The MBA stream also expanded over three years. Management hiring saw its placement volume jump by over 35%, rising from 3,445 students in 2022-23 to 4,729 in 2023-24, and maintaining high numbers at 4,672 students placed in 2024-25. Alongside, 9,034, 12,440 and 12,534 students graduated in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024 and 25 respectively, which reveals that an average of 38% students were placed each year. Other professional streams provided consistent expansion fuel for the university's overall recruitment numbers. Besides, the B.Pharma recorded the sharpest growth trajectory among all four disciplines. Its number of placed students jumped from 1,686 in 2022-23 to 2,175 in 2023-24, finally reaching 2,445 in 2024-25-a 45% surge over the three-year period. While 7598, 13828 and 17267 students graduated in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 respectively. The data shows that 22.19%, 15.74% and 14.15% students were placed in the three consecutive years highlighting that placements surged but graduates grew much faster with over 127.3%. This shows that hiring did not keep pace of the batch size even with the sharpest growth in hiring numbers. Meanwhile, the MCA stream maintained a steady upward climb of technical talent. Its placements rose consistently from 991 to 1,100, peaking at 1,254 students over the three-year window. As many as 2,528, 4,160 and 3,873 students graduated in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 respectively. Which shows that an average of 39.20% graduates were placed. The data indicates that while engineering recruitment stabilized after its initial dip, corporate industry partners have increasingly shifted their focus toward absorbing a broader, more diversified volume of graduates across management, computer applications, and pharmacy from the university's affiliated colleges. University vice-chancellor, prof JP Pandey said the university is constantly working towards skilling students to make them industry-ready. "Focus on skill development has helped the university increase the number of students getting placed. With skill development being aggressively increased at the university level, we are projecting more consistent growth in placements in the next few years," said Pandey....