KIT: Higher education in India

Strategic tools for the practising manager

Higher education in India is poised for an unprecedented expansion, marked by an explosion in student enrolment, a substantial growth in the number of institutions and a quantum leap in the level of investment in education. The challenge of providing equal opportunities for quality higher education, to an ever-growing number of students, is also a historic opportunity for correcting social imbalances, strengthening institutional framework sand surpassing international benchmarks of excellence. India, with half its population below the age of 25, is set to either reap the demographic dividend, or plunge to disaster depending on how the youth are educated. This is both a ‘challenge and opportunity’ that all stakeholders need to address by charting out a path and, most importantly, implementing it with discipline.

Indian higher education system is largest in the world in terms of number of institutes (646 universities and 33,023 colleges) and 3rd largest in terms of enrolment (17 million), just behind China and the USA. Despite this, the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education in India is 16 per cent as compared to the global average of 23per cent. The government has set an aggressive target of achieving a GER of 30 per cent by 2020.

As per our estimates, to achieve this target, 15 million more seats are required, and at a cost per seat of Rs 0.6 million, the total investment required is about USD 180 bn. Indian higher education segment is currently estimated at around USD 11 bn.

The Indian higher education is over-regulated and yet under-governed. There are multiple regulatory bodies with overlapping roles and responsibilities. Further, education comes in the concurrent list of the constitution, which implies that it is under the purview of both the central government as well as respective state governments.