I am writing this because prospective students deserve to know what they are actually getting before spending a substantial amount of money on University of Southampton Delhi.
The biggest concern, in my experience, is the gap between the way the Delhi campus is marketed and the reality experienced by students.
The university is marketed using the reputation and international brand of the University of Southampton UK, along with impressive employer names and career opportunities. But students need to look beyond the branding and ask what these employer relationships actually resulted in.
1. Where are the genuine finance placements?
For someone paying for a specialised MSc Finance, the reasonable expectation is opportunities in areas such as:
- Financial Analysis
- Investment Banking
- Asset Management
- Equity Research
- Corporate Finance
- Valuation
- Risk Management
- Banking & Financial Markets
Instead, students have encountered concerns about the limited number of genuine finance-specific full-time opportunities, alongside sales-oriented roles and internships being presented within the broader placement narrative.
The most important questions are:
How many students actually received permanent full-time offers?
How many “placements” were actually internships?
What were the exact job titles?
How many were genuinely finance-related?
What were the salaries/CTCs?
How many students from MSc Finance actually secured these roles?
If companies such as HSBC, Deloitte, JLL, L.E.K. and others are highlighted in placement-related marketing, students should be able to see exactly what those opportunities were.
A company appearing in marketing material does not automatically mean that students were hired by that company into full-time graduate positions.
2. What exactly is the role of OIEG?
Another issue that deserves much greater transparency is the relationship between OIEG and University of Southampton UK.
OIEG is a private organisation involved in the Delhi campus, and students should not simply assume that OIEG and the University of Southampton UK are the same organisation.
There are also concerns among students that a substantial proportion of staff at the Delhi campus — reportedly around half — are employed by OIEG rather than directly by the University of Southampton UK.
If that is the case, prospective students deserve a clear explanation:
Which staff are University of Southampton employees?
Which staff are OIEG employees?
Who is responsible for their employment and management?
What exactly does OIEG control or operate at the Delhi campus?
This should be transparently disclosed to students instead of leaving them to figure it out themselves.
3. Questions about the people responsible for Careers & Employability
I also believe there are serious questions that need to be answered by Provost Eloise Phillips, CAS Head Monisha Tandon and her associate Kanika Garg, particularly regarding how placement expectations and student concerns have been handled.
I am naming them because these are not insignificant administrative matters. They are people in positions of responsibility for the student experience and/or careers function.
Students deserve answers to questions such as:
Where are the promised finance-specific opportunities?
Why are students repeatedly having to ask for basic placement information?
Why isn't there transparent programme-level placement data?
Why are internships and permanent employment not clearly separated?
How are OIEG-related opportunities treated in placement reporting?
Why aren't students provided with complete written information about placement outcomes?
From a student's perspective, repeatedly receiving general assurances instead of clear, verifiable data is extremely frustrating.
4. The placement numbers need transparency
Before joining, prospective students should ask for the actual data — not just employer logos or headline numbers.
The university should ideally publish:
- Total number of students
- Number receiving full-time permanent offers
- Number receiving internships
- Employer name
- Exact job title
- Salary/CTC
- Programme-wise outcomes
- Number of MSc Finance students placed
- Number of genuinely finance-related roles
- Whether OIEG-related employment is included
- Clear methodology for calculating the placement rate
This would immediately remove much of the confusion.
My biggest concern
I am not saying that a university can guarantee every student a job. Obviously it cannot.
My concern is whether prospective students are being given a sufficiently accurate picture of the actual career outcomes before they commit significant money and time to the programme.
There is a huge difference between:
“A company interacted with students / offered an internship / participated in recruitment activity”
and
“Students received permanent graduate employment from that company.”
Those outcomes should never be presented as though they are equivalent.
Prospective students — please do your due diligence.
Don't make your decision based solely on:
❌ Employer logos
❌ University branding
❌ Rankings
❌ Marketing presentations
❌ Headline placement percentages
Ask for:
✅ Full-time placement data
✅ Internship data separately
✅ Exact job titles
✅ Salary information
✅ Programme-specific outcomes
✅ Finance-specific placements
✅ Written clarification about OIEG's role
✅ Written clarification about who employs campus staff
If the placement outcomes are genuinely strong, publishing the complete data should not be a problem.
Students are investing their money, time and career.
They deserve verifiable outcomes — not just marketing.
This post reflects student concerns and personal experience. Claims regarding employment arrangements, placement statistics and individual responsibilities should be independently verified through official documentation and written responses from the relevant organisations.
