Comrades Editorial · 03 Oct 2026 (PDF)
In this edition
- Transforming India’s Higher Education System Social Issues
Social Issues
Transforming India’s Higher Education System
Source This editorial is based on “How can India make quality higher education affordable?” published in The Hindu on 29/09/2026. The article highlights the gap between India’s large talent pool and limited access to affordable, quality higher education, stressing the need to expand capacity, diversify funding, strengthen research and support students beyond elite institutions. Recent protests over examination irregularities and alleged paper leaks have highlighted the intense pressure surrounding competitive examinations in India. However, the deeper issue is the scarcity of affordable, quality higher-education opportunities. For decades, India responded by building a number of excellent public institutions such as the IITs and IISc, offering quality education at substantially subsidised fees. But India’s ambitions in AI, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and clean energy require a much larger pool of highly skilled graduates. What Recent Developments are Shaping India’s Higher Education System?- Expansion of Higher-Education Capacity:
- India has substantially expanded its higher-education network to improve access, although the quality of institutions remains uneven.
- For example, the number of universities increased from 760 in 2014-15 to 1,289 in 2023-24, representing a 69.6% increase, while colleges rose from 38,498 to 48,246.
- Importantly, expansion has also improved inclusion: female enrolment increased from 1.57 crore in 2014-15 to 2.18 crore in 2022-23, while female GER reached 31.2% in 2023-24.
- Growing Role of Private Higher-Education Institutions:
- Private institutions have become an important component of India’s strategy to expand higher-education capacity beyond government institutions.
- As per AISHE data, 66% of colleges were private unaided, compared with 20.8% government and 13.1% private aided colleges in 2022-23. This shows that private providers are central to India’s institutional capacity.
- Private universities and colleges have helped expand access in areas where public institutions alone cannot meet the growing demand for higher education.
- Student-Centric Financial Support:
- India is gradually moving towards mechanisms that provide financial assistance directly to students rather than relying exclusively on institutional subsidies.
- The PM-Vidyalaxmi Scheme covers 860 quality higher-education institutions and is expected to benefit more than 22 lakh students annually.
- Eligible students from families with annual income up to ₹8 lakh can receive 3% interest subvention on loans up to ₹10 lakh, subject to scheme conditions.
- Loans up to ₹7.5 lakh are also supported by a government credit guarantee, helping students who may lack collateral or a guarantor.
- Expansion of Digital and Blended Learning:
- Digital platforms are emerging as an important tool for expanding access to quality educational content beyond metropolitan universities.
- As of August 2026, SWAYAM offered more than 20,370 courses and recorded over 6.5 crore enrolments. The platform provides courses from institutions and faculty across disciplines, allowing students to access quality learning beyond their physical campus.
- Under the UGC Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM Regulations, 2021, higher-education institutions can allow students to earn up to 40% of programme credits through SWAYAM courses.
- Greater Focus on Research and Institutional Quality:
- Higher-education policy is increasingly focusing on research, innovation, infrastructure and institutional quality rather than merely increasing enrolment.
- India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) more than doubled from ₹60,196.75 crore in 2010-11 to ₹1,27,380.96 crore in 2020-21. The Government also sanctioned ₹99,494.24 crore during 2020-21 to 2025-26 for premier technical institutions including IITs, NITs, IIITs, IISERs and IISc.
- The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) was established under the 2023 Act and became operational in February 2024 with an overall outlay of ₹50,000 crore.
- Adoption of the Multiple Entry and Exit (MEME) System and Academic Bank of Credits (ABC):
- Driven by the National Education Policy (NEP), higher education institutions are rolling out flexible four-year undergraduate programmes featuring multiple exit options.
- Students can now earn a certificate after one year, a diploma after two, a standard bachelor’s degree after three, or a bachelor’s with research after four years, with the freedom to pause and re-enter their studies later.
- The Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) acts as a digital repository to securely store and transfer credits seamlessly across institutions.
- Internationalisation and Global Integration:
- India is actively opening its doors to global academic collaborations. Regulatory changes now permit top-ranking foreign universities to establish physical campuses within India, fostering cross-border exchange programmes and joint degrees.
- Indian universities are simultaneously encouraged to set up offshore campuses abroad, while domestic institutions are redesigning curricula to align with global competency and mobility standards.
- For example, top-ranking global institutions like Deakin University and the University of Wollongong have established international branch campuses at GIFT City in Gujarat.
- Simultaneously, premier domestic institutions like IIT Delhi have expanded their global footprints by launching offshore campuses abroad, such as its new branch in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
- Severe Shortage of Quality Seats:
- India has far more talented students than the number of affordable, high-quality seats available in premier institutions.
- The national medical entrance examination attracts more than 20 lakh candidates, while the number of MBBS seats remains far smaller than the number of aspirants.
- The NTA’s 2026 data demonstrate the enormous scale of national entrance examinations; even the B.Arch component of JEE Main recorded 94,513 registrations, while B.Planning recorded 45,729 registrations across the examination cycle.
- The intense competition is therefore partly a consequence of scarcity of quality educational capacity, rather than scarcity of talent.
- Faculty Vacancies and Quality Constraints:
- Expansion of higher education becomes ineffective when institutions lack adequate numbers of qualified teachers and researchers.
- For example, IIT Roorkee had 556 faculty in position against 939 sanctioned posts, while IIT (ISM) Dhanbad had 398 against 781 in January 2026.
- Vacancies increase teaching responsibilities on existing faculty and can reduce student-faculty interaction, research supervision and mentoring.
- Thus, increasing enrollment without simultaneously strengthening faculty capacity can result in expansion of access without equivalent expansion of quality.
- Underfunded Research and Innovation Ecosystem:
- Although overall spending has increased, India’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) as a percentage of GDP remains low relative to major global economies (hovering around 0.65%).
- Funding is often concentrated, leaving a vast majority of state-level colleges and universities with virtually no financial support or infrastructure for research.
- Employability and Skill Gaps:
- A significant portion of higher education graduates face challenges regarding job readiness. Despite high enrollment numbers, conventional degree programmes frequently emphasize rote learning over critical thinking, practical skills, and industry alignment, resulting in a mismatch between graduate qualifications and market demands.
- According to Mercer Mettl’s India’s Graduate Skill Index 2025 report, only 42.6% of Indian graduates assessed were employable
- Over-Regulation and Bureaucratic Hurdles:
- India’s historical governance framework has been characterized by rigid, overlapping oversight from multiple statutory bodies, such as the University Grants Commission (UGC) and various professional councils, leading to excessive red tape. This suffocates institutional autonomy, delays agile curriculum updates, and discourages multidisciplinary experimentation.
- While regulatory reforms like the proposed Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) aim to separate grant-making from academic standard-setting, state-level bureaucratic delays still hinder universities from rapidly responding to emerging technological shifts like AI and green energy.
- “Brain Drain” and Outbound Student Mobility:
- A massive wave of high-performing Indian students chooses to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate education abroad, driven by aspirations for global exposure, superior research infrastructure, and international career mobility. This strips domestic institutions of top-tier academic intellect and peer competition.
- Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and destination-country data consistently show hundreds of thousands of Indian students migrating annually to countries like Canada, the UK, the US, and Australia.
- Unequal Financial Burden on Students:
- The affordability challenge is particularly significant for students who are academically capable but unable to bear the full cost of quality education.
- Public institutions such as IITs provide substantial implicit subsidies because student fees cover only a portion of the actual cost.
- A comparable student studying outside these institutions may not receive an equivalent level of public financial support.
- Conventional education loans can provide access but may create repayment pressure, making targeted scholarships and income-sensitive financing necessary.
- Leverage Technology to Expand Quality at Lower Marginal Cost:
- Digital and hybrid education can supplement physical campuses and make specialised courses accessible to students who cannot afford relocation.
- SWAYAM’s nearly 4 crore course enrolments demonstrate significant demand for digitally delivered higher education.
- Leading institutions can collaborate to provide high-quality digital courses in emerging areas such as AI, semiconductors, biotechnology, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
- Combining online lectures with local laboratories, tutorials and mentoring can expand access without requiring every student to relocate to an expensive metropolitan education hub.
- Decentralized Research Funding and Dedicated Innovation Hubs:
- Expand the operational reach of funding frameworks like the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) beyond elite institutions (such as IITs and IISc).
- By deliberately channeling competitive research grants, incubation labs, and seed funding down to state-level universities and affiliated colleges, research activity can be democratized nationwide.
- Embedding Mandatory Skill Integration and Industry Co-Creation:
- Overhaul conventional rote-learning syllabi by making practical, outcome-based learning mandatory.
- This involves institutionalizing structured industry internships, embedding real-world modular projects into core degrees, and partnering with corporate and technical experts to co-create curricula that reflect actual market demands.
- Targeted Merit-Cum-Needs Financing and Transparent Fee Regulation: Scale up direct-to-student financial safety nets—such as expanded interest subvention schemes (e.g., PM-Vidyalaxmi) and robust scholarship pools for economically weaker sections, while strictly regulating self-financing and private institutions to cap hidden costs, ensuring that talented students from modest backgrounds are never priced out of quality education.
- Faculty Capacity Building, Retention Incentives, and Streamlined Recruitment:
- Fast-track the permanent filling of massive faculty vacancies by cutting down red tape in recruitment boards.
- To combat brain drain and teacher shortages, institutions must offer competitive, market-aligned compensation, excellent research startup grants, and world-class campus infrastructure that incentivizes top global and domestic academic talent to stay and teach in India.
- Diversify University Financing:
- Universities need sustainable sources of revenue beyond student fees so that affordability does not come at the expense of institutional quality.
- Leading global universities combine tuition, research funding and endowment income, reducing dependence on any single source.
- India should encourage alumni philanthropy, university endowments, industry-sponsored research, consultancy and technology transfer through appropriate regulatory and tax incentives.
- India’s higher-education challenge is ultimately about scale, quality and affordability: while the country has built world-class institutions, quality capacity remains insufficient for its large pool of talented youth. The way forward is to expand high-quality institutions, strengthen State universities, address faculty shortages, make financial support more student-centric, diversify university financing and leverage technology, so that access to quality education is not determined by a student’s income or admission to a handful of elite institutions. India’s demographic dividend can translate into sustained economic growth only when talent is matched with affordable, high-quality opportunity at scale.