A 2018 report of Mettl research found higher average salary offers for graduates of leading IITs and IIMs than for its broader comparison groups. It is evidence about reported offers at that time—not current salaries, guaranteed individual outcomes, or proof that attending one of these institutions causes higher pay.
What did the 2018 report find?
Scroll’s July 20, 2018 article, republished from Quartz, reported salary-offer figures from Mettl research covering engineering and management colleges in India. The reported averages were:
| Group and comparison | Reported average offer | What the comparison covers |
|---|---|---|
| IIT engineering graduates | ₹11.1 lakh per annum | Compared with ₹4.7 lakh per annum for entry-level engineers nationally |
| Graduates of top IIMs, including Ahmedabad and Bangalore | ₹20.6 lakh per annum | Compared with ₹9.3 lakh per annum for MBA graduates on average in India |
| Machine-learning roles | More than ₹18 lakh per annum | The highest-paying engineering stream identified in the report’s analysis |
These are the average offers reported in the 2018 coverage, not medians, take-home pay, realized earnings, or figures for every graduate. The engineering and MBA comparisons come from different populations and should not be treated as a single like-for-like measure. Scroll’s report of the Mettl findings provides the figures and their original context.
How broad was the survey?
Engineering colleges
The article says Mettl’s engineering research drew on responses from 114 engineering colleges across India during the first six months of 2018. It describes older IITs as “top” and says salaries at IITs formed in or after 2008 were lower. The coverage does not provide the sample size of individual respondents, response rates, sampling or weighting details, salary distributions, or uncertainty ranges. Without those details, readers cannot assess how representative the reported averages are or how precisely they describe graduates beyond the surveyed colleges.
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MBA colleges
For management graduates, the article says Mettl surveyed 80 MBA colleges. It reports the top-IIM average against the average for MBA graduates in India, but the inspected coverage does not supply enough methodological detail to establish how closely the institutions, roles, or compensation measures match across those groups.
Do the figures show that an IIT or IIM causes higher pay?
No. The reported comparisons describe differences in average offers; they do not isolate the effect of attending a particular institution. The article does not show whether the comparison accounts for prior academic achievement, selection into the institutions, field of study, role, industry, or geography. Nor does it establish that an offer was accepted or became an employee’s actual compensation.
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Scroll quoted Sujaya Banerjee, founder and CEO of Capstone People Consulting, offering one employer’s rationale: “The philosophy behind this practice is that these candidates have gone through more severe competition to secure admission and must get compensated differently.” That is an attributed opinion, not evidence that this explanation caused the reported pay gap.
Are IITs and IIMs the only schools associated with high offers?
The report’s coverage itself points to variation. It says machine learning was the highest-paying engineering stream in its analysis and that IITs formed in or after 2008 had lower salaries than older IITs. For MBA graduates, it says Management Development Institute, Gurugram, and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research earned nearly as much as graduates of IIMs. The averages therefore do not support treating every institute or discipline as interchangeable—or predicting an individual graduate’s offer.
What can newer evidence tell you?
Azim Premji University’s State of Working India 2026 says salaried earnings for graduates exceed those of non-graduates at entry and across the lifetime. It also describes financial barriers to professional fields, including engineering and medicine, and says graduate employment has not grown commensurately with the number of graduates. This is broad evidence about education and work in India; it does not update the 2018 IIT- or IIM-specific offer figures.
A search-result abstract for an American Economic Association paper, “Prestige Matters: Wage Premium and Value Addition in Elite Colleges”, describes an earnings advantage for graduates of elite public institutions in India, while saying attendance had no discernible effect on academic outcomes. The abstract alone does not establish detailed methods or a causal explanation for the Mettl figures.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should you use the salary figures?
Use them as a historical snapshot of reported average offers, not as a forecast of what a current applicant or graduate will earn. A useful present-day comparison would need a publication year and cohort, institute and program, average or median, a clear definition of compensation (such as fixed salary versus total package), and information about geography, role, industry mix, survey coverage, and adjustment for prior achievement or selection. Those details are not established for the Mettl figures described in the 2018 coverage.
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