The much-awaited placement season at the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras, began on Thursday, with three companies participating in the graveyard session (12 a.m.- 6 a.m.). Microsoft, Uber and Oracle have each made one international offer this year.

Though Google and McKinsey have opted for off-campus recruitment, with many other companies likely to offer jobs, students have a good chance of being placed according to their expectations, according to Manu Santhanam, placement advisor.

During the first session that ended at 2 p.m. on Thursday, 54 offers were made. Of these Microsoft, Samsung R&D Bangalore, Goldman Sachs, Oracle, VISA and ITC each made more than four offers. The first session also included IBM Research, Texas Instruments, Boston Consulting Group, Dalberg Global Development Advisers, Nutanix Technologies, Auctus Advisors and Xerox Research Centre.

This year, as many as 1,327 students, including 206 women students, have registered. However, more students (61) as compared to last year (33) had deferred placements this year. The session began with 71 students receiving pre-placement offers as against 69 last year. Last year, of the 1,033 who registered for placement, 799 were placed.

With the All IIT Placement Committee blacklisting 30 start-ups for the current session, only 74 will recruit this year as against 98 companies last year, the placement office said. As many as 68 companies, which are regular recruiters, have been visiting the campus for at least three years.

The institute’s coordination attempts with the companies to find placements for postgraduate students has paid off as more profiles for PG students have been created, officials said.

As of Thursday, 308 companies had registered for the initial placements. PSUs, including Coal India and Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT) have also registered.

Prof. Manu Santhanam said, “The opening season has been very encouraging with many companies opening up job profiles for core engineering and research-based roles. Our students are excited about these opportunities as many of them prefer technical engineering roles.” Sector-wise analysis indicates that 124 companies have together on offer 184 profiles in core and research and development. The first phase of the placements will end on December 13. The next phase will continue from January to April 2017.