India has had an expansion in the higher education system with the establishment of universities, colleges and foreign institutions which have set up their campuses here. The last decade has seen the nation make strides in improving access to higher education. The next challenge is to ensure that this expansion also leads to better teaching, stronger research, employable skills and fairer access to opportunity. Building more institutions and enrolling more students are laudable steps, but India’s education system has problems that go beyond the number of institutions. Many campuses have vacant faculty positions, research funding is dismal and entrance examinations have become unreliable. The next phase of reform must focus on what students actually gain from higher education.
Campuses expand but staffing is short
In 2023-24, India had 1,289 universities, 48,246 colleges and 15,221 stand-alone institutions, representing average growth of 47% over 2013-14. Total enrollment rose from 34.2 million in 2014-15 to 45 million in 2023-24. The teaching staff increased from approximately 1.37 million to 1.73 million while female faculty rose from 39% to 45%.
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Participation has also become more inclusive. Students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes accounted for 62% of enrollment in 2023-24. Women constituted nearly half of PhD enrollment. There is no denying the widening of access, although enrollment alone cannot establish whether students receive comparable educational quality or employment opportunities.
Another encouraging factor in the education ecosystem is the rise of premier institutions. The number of IITs, IIMs and NITs increased from 59 in 2013-14 to 76 by 2025-26. Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, women’s share of core undergraduate enrollment at IITs rose from 8% to 20%, while their share of core postgraduate enrollment at IIMs increased from 26.3% to 37.7%.
However, not every student makes it to IIT or IIM or other central universities. The quality of higher education depends on whether other institutions can provide competent teaching, relevant qualifications and credible pathways into employment.
One of the most obvious challenges in quality education is faculty shortages. A parliamentary committee report cited a vacancy rate of 34% across national universities, with vacancies reaching 54% at the professor level. Empty positions mean heavier workloads for existing teachers, fewer opportunities for research supervision and less individual attention for students.
So while India has expanded its institutional footprint, staff remains the missing link. Recruitment delays, administrative constraints and difficulties attracting qualified researchers can leave new departments struggling to deliver their intended benefits. Universities need time-bound recruitment plans, greater flexibility in filling sanctioned posts and transparent reporting of vacancies. Faculty development and research support must also feature prominently in institutional assessments.
Higher education and funding gap
Actual expenditure by the Department of Higher Education nearly doubled between 2014-15 and 2024-25, but its share of total Union expenditure declined from 1.6% in 2017-18 to 1% in 2024-25. Absolute spending can rise while education loses ground in the government’s overall spending priorities.
The research deficit is particularly consequential. India’s gross expenditure on research and development stood at approximately 0.84% of GDP in 2023-24. The country’s ambition to become a knowledge economy will remain constrained if universities lack the funding, laboratories and specialist personnel needed to generate new knowledge.
The government’s immediate priority should be to raise R&D expenditure to 1.5% of GDP through public investment and stronger private-sector participation. However, additional spending must be accompanied by competitive research grants, shared laboratory facilities and industry-linked programmes. Universities should be encouraged to develop solutions for problems in healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and climate adaptation rather than being judged principally by enrollment and examination results.
Then there is the skills gap.
India needs to go miles to travel the distance between educational expansion and economic requirements. The 2025 Periodic Labour Force Survey found that only 31% of people aged 15-29 had received formal vocational or technical training.
Meanwhile, factories, hospitals, data centres and logistics networks require technicians, electricians, machine operators, care workers and other skilled professionals. However, vocational education does not enjoy as much social acceptance as conventional academic degrees.
In total, education, skill development and employment function as disconnected systems. A graduate may lack practical experience, while a technically capable worker may struggle to obtain a recognised qualification that opens the door to better-paid employment.
There are nations which have cracked the apprenticeship code. Germany and Switzerland for instance combine classroom instruction with supervised workplace training. India need not replicate these models but it can build stronger partnerships between colleges, employers and industrial clusters. Students can earn recognised credits through apprenticeships and move between vocational qualifications and university programmes.
The divide between public and private institutions also deserves attention. Fees, faculty strength, infrastructure and graduate outcomes are different for different institutions and leave students with unequal opportunities depending on their financial circumstances and location. Scholarships and targeted financial assistance can help ensure that capable students are not excluded because their families cannot afford tuition.
Examination reform
The credibility of higher education also depends on how students enter it. Trust in competitive examinations has been compromised due to past scandals, exposing weaknesses in security, administration and grievance redressal. The government appointed the Radhakrishnan Committee to recommend reforms to the National Testing Agency (NTA). The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, strengthened the legal framework against organised examination malpractice. But, the damage has been done.
The harder task in the education ecosystem is to ensure that institutions have enough teachers, research receives adequate funding, vocational qualifications lead to employment and examinations operate fairly. Practical reforms need not wait. Recruitment, research investment, affordable education, industry-linked training and reliable examination systems can make a measurable difference.
A student cannot be guaranteed admission to a preferred university or a particular career. However, they should be able to expect better teaching, credible qualifications and an honest admissions process. The next higher education agenda must move beyond counting institutions and enrollments to measuring whether education expands what its students can achieve.