IISc Bengaluru professor asks: What if companies stop hiring from campuses?

An IISc Bengaluru professor has asked students to consider how AI could reshape campus hiring. His words also uttered something that is concerning with loosing relevance to a degree.

In Short

• AI can now handle coding, data analysis, reports and research support
• Fewer workers may be needed where AI completes routine tasks
• Students may need stronger skills in questioning and verifying AI outputs

A professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, has invited his students to contemplate what may become of university education should companies curtail campus recruitment over the next five to ten years. Dr Prathosh, a professor at IISc Bengaluru, raised the question against the backdrop of the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace.

AI systems are now capable of performing tasks such as writing code, analysing data, preparing reports and assisting with research. As businesses adopt these technologies, certain duties once entrusted to junior employees may no longer require the same number of hands.

This could have a bearing upon campus recruitment, which has long served as an important passage from higher education to employment in India.

The question posed by the professor is a simple yet consequential one: if companies cease to visit universities in considerable numbers in search of young recruits, what, then, shall be the proper purpose of a university education?

AI COULD CHANGE ENTRY-LEVEL JOBS

Campus placements typically give fresh graduates their first opportunity to enter the workforce. But if AI allows companies to complete the same amount of work with fewer employees, the demand for new hires could fall in some areas.

For instance, if work that previously required 100 employees can be done by 50 employees with the help of AI, companies may have less need to recruit at the same scale.

This does not mean campus placements will disappear. It does, however, raise questions about how universities should prepare students for a job market where some entry-level tasks may increasingly be handled by AI.

WHAT SHOULD STUDENTS LEARN?

AI is also changing the skills that students may need.

Earlier, students were expected to find information, understand it and use it to complete a task. AI can now help with several of these steps.

As a result, students may need to focus more on asking the right questions, checking AI-generated information and using it to solve problems. Understanding how and when to use AI could also become part of a student's education.

The rise of AI does not mean that university degrees will lose their value.

Universities also provide access to laboratories, professors, research projects and opportunities to work with other students. These can offer experiences that go beyond learning information for a job.

The role of universities, however, could change as the nature of work changes.

Instead of being seen mainly as a path to employment, universities may have to place greater focus on research, problem-solving, experimentation and preparing students to work alongside new technologies.

For students, the question may therefore shift from what degree they hold to what they can do with that education that AI cannot do on its own.

Whether campus hiring declines significantly over the next five to 10 years remains uncertain. But the question raised by the IISc professor highlights a larger issue facing higher education: if AI changes the way companies hire and work, should universities also rethink what they are preparing students for?

- Ends