India’s GER today stands at 28.4%. The global average is close to 40%. The difference between these two numbers is not just statistical; it speaks to the distance we still need to travel if we want to build a knowledge society that includes every young person in its imagination.
When we talk about education in India, we often speak with both pride and concern. Pride, because few countries in the world have attempted to build and sustain an education system of this scale and diversity.
And concern, because the sheer size of our system makes every challenge larger, every reform slower, and every outcome harder to shift. Higher education India reflects this duality sharply.
Today, let me try to unpack one very specific, very important indicator: our Gross Enrolment Ratio, or GER, in higher education. In simple words, GER tells us what proportion of young people, typically between 18 and 23, are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is one of the clearest mirrors we have of how well our society is expanding educational opportunity.
India’s GER today stands at 28.4%. The global average is close to 40%. The difference between these two numbers is not just statistical; it speaks to the distance we still need to travel if we want to build a knowledge society that includes every young person in its imagination.
But as with most things in our country, this number is only the beginning of a larger and more layered story.
The Mathematics That Shapes Our Future
If we look back a decade, India’s GER was around 23.7%. So, the rise to 28.4% is no small achievement. Millions of young people have entered higher education India in this period.
The number of institutions has grown. Access has widened. The aspirations of families have risen. But if we peel back the numbers carefully, a more complex truth emerges.
Our enrolments are rising, but our youth population is rising too. The denominator, in some sense, keeps growing faster than the numerator. This is one of the reasons why even large increases in the number of students result in only small movements in GER. This is the peculiar arithmetic of a nation as young and as large as ours.
To reach the National Education Policy’s vision of 50% GER by 2035, we need to make a leap that is, frankly, unprecedented in global higher education.
If we want to be near 40% by 2030, which is what the trajectory requires, we may need to bring nearly seven crore students into higher education institutions. That is almost the size of the entire higher education system of the United States.
We must understand what this means: India needs not incremental growth, but a non-linear, transformative expansion. And this expansion must not compromise quality or equity.
The Outflow of Students: A Mirror We Must Not Ignore
There is another dimension of the GER conversation which we rarely acknowledge in public discourse. Every year, almost nine lakh Indian students travel abroad for higher studies. In 2023 alone, Indian households spent nearly $60 billion, over five lakh crore rupees, on overseas higher education.
To put that in perspective, that is over ten times the annual budget our central government spends on higher education India.
This is not merely a question of economics. It is a reflection of our capacity gap and our trust gap. When a family decides to send a child abroad, often at tremendous financial strain, it is not because they dislike learning in India.
It is because they believe the system outside the country will offer something our system still struggles to provide, consistent quality, a clear link to employability, and a certain confidence in campus infrastructure, faculty availability, and research culture.
In a strange way, the outward movement of our students depresses our GER further. Many of these students would have stayed within the system if they felt well-served here. A part of our GER deficit is, therefore, a leakage of trust, not just numbers.
Higher Education Pipeline Narrows Too Early
We often blame colleges and universities for low GER, but the truth lies earlier in the system.
Only 42.4% of our young people in the 16–17 age group are enrolled in higher secondary school. If a child drops out before Class 12, they are mathematically excluded from higher education access. So the issue is not merely higher education expansion. It is a secondary education completion crisis.
If India must reach 40% GER by 2030, then the higher education rate in India state wise must rise—but so must the number of students who complete school. We need at least 75% enrolment in higher secondary education to supply enough eligible students for college.
This reinforces a simple truth: Higher education cannot grow unless school education is fixed. The pipeline is only as strong as its weakest link.
The Uneven Geography of Access
Whenever we talk about India’s GER, we must remember that this is an average of extremes.
Some states have already achieved levels of participation comparable to advanced countries.
States like:
- Tamil Nadu
- Chandigarh
- Delhi
- Puducherry
These regions are close to or above 45–60% GER. They reflect what is possible when schooling systems are strong, institutions are dense, and social attitudes encourage higher learning.
At the same time, we have states like:
- Bihar
- Jharkhand
- Assam
- Chhattisgarh
Here, the higher education rate in India state wise often falls below 20%. These states carry the weight of our national average. They are home to some of our largest youth populations. Unless these states move upward dramatically, India’s GER simply cannot cross 35–40%.
In this two-speed India, the national GER reflects both success and struggle simultaneously.
The Faculty Crisis
Let me speak honestly here. The greatest challenge facing higher education India is not infrastructure. It is not technology. It is people.
Across our country, public universities, especially state universities, carry a faculty vacancy rate of 30–50%. Many colleges rely extensively on guest faculty who are underpaid and have no job security. These conditions make sustained academic quality nearly impossible.
Students feel the consequences directly:
- Oversized classrooms
- Limited student-faculty engagement
- Reduced research activity
- Administrative overload on existing faculty
When the Student–Teacher Ratio is 30:1, double the global ideal, academic excellence becomes exceptionally difficult.
This shortage is one of the biggest hidden barriers to expanding GER. You cannot bring millions of new learners into a system that does not have the human capacity to teach them.
We need a National Faculty Mission, not just new campuses.
Digital Pathways: The Only Scalable Road Ahead
Whenever we talk about GER expansion, the imagination immediately goes to building new colleges. But we must be realistic. Brick-and-mortar expansion alone will never bring India to 40% by 2030.
Digital learning is not an alternative. It is the only viable accelerator.
Let me explain why.
- ODL and online programs have already seen 40%+ yearly growth.
- The UGC now allows 40% of a degree’s credits through SWAYAM and MOOCs.
- Digital Universities can scale without faculty shortages becoming a bottleneck.
- AI-assisted teaching tools can improve quality and support student learning in ways earlier generations could not imagine.
This does not mean we replace physical universities. Far from it. But the mix must shift. If even one-third of new students come through digital pathways, the entire GER trajectory changes.
Digital education is not a shortcut. It is a force multiplier for inclusion, quality, and reach.
A Governance Framework for a Mass System
As the system expands, we must also strengthen its governance. Otherwise, we risk the expansion becoming hollow—numbers without learning.
Today, our regulatory framework is fragmented, well-intentioned but complex:
- UGC
- AICTE
- NAAC
- NBA
Each plays an important role, but together they create an environment of overlapping mandates and inconsistent standards. This is why the proposed Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) is so important. It is not merely a bureaucratic reform. It is a systems reform. It tries to do two things:
- Create a unified, coordinated oversight structure
- Separate regulation from funding, allowing accountability without politicisation
If we want our GER to rise without sacrificing quality, we need exactly this kind of clarity and coherence.
Financing the future: A New Economic Imagination
One of the most difficult truths about higher education India is that nearly 90% of institutional revenue comes from government funds.
In OECD countries, public support is closer to 30–60%. Institutions draw the rest from:
- Endowments
- Philanthropy
- Research collaborations
- Industry partnerships
- Tuition flexibility within regulatory limits
Our system cannot grow to 70 million students on public money alone. The state must continue supporting access—especially for disadvantaged communities, but institutions also need space and capacity to diversify their income.
This is not commercialization. This is sustainability.
Without diversified financing, our GER improvements will remain fragile and uneven.
India’s GER by 2030
If we continue on our current path, expanding slowly, reforming gradually, we are likely to reach around 34–35% GER by 2030. That is progress, but still behind the global average.
To reach 40% by 2030, several things must happen together:
- Higher secondary enrolment must rise significantly
- State-wise disparities must shrink, especially in Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Assam
- Digital learning must add millions of seats
- Faculty recruitment must accelerate dramatically
- Regulatory reform must unify and simplify governance
- Institutional financing must diversify
None of these are impossible. But they require political will, administrative discipline, and societal patience.
The question is not whether India can reach 40% GER.
The question is whether we can align our systems, policies, and social priorities to get there.
A Shared National Responsibility
Higher education India does not belong to universities alone. It belongs to all of us, parents, policymakers, teachers, citizens, and students themselves. The journey from 28.4% GER to 40% or 50% is not a race between states. It is a collective national undertaking.
We must:
- Strengthen our school system
- Expand opportunities equitably
- Make digital learning credible and accessible
- Support state universities with serious funding and serious reform
- Build faculty capacity as a national mission
- Reduce the outflow of students by raising domestic quality
Above all, we must remember that numbers are only indicators. What matters finally is the life opportunities we create for every young person.
If we get this right, GER will rise. If we fail, the numbers will tell us so long before the consequences become irreversible.
The Employability Disconnect
There is one aspect of higher education India that we often hesitate to speak about openly: the gap between education and employability. It sits quietly beneath our discussions on GER, yet it shapes the lived experience of millions of graduates.
Increasing enrolment is necessary, but it cannot be our only goal. If young people complete their degrees but feel unprepared for meaningful work or civic participation, the system does not truly serve them.
Today, many employers in India express concerns that a significant proportion of graduates lack foundational skills, communication, analytical thinking, problem-solving, digital literacy. These concerns are not criticisms of young people; they are observations about the learning environments we provide.
Our curricula remain rigid. Faculty shortages reduce opportunities for personalised learning. And the rapid expansion of institutions in the past two decades means that quality assurance has not always kept pace with quantity.
As we look toward 2030, we must remember that expanding GER must go hand-in-hand with expanding capabilities. This includes:
- Embedding experiential learning and community engagement
- Focusing on foundational competencies rather than rote knowledge
- Encouraging interdisciplinary learning
- Strengthening vocational and professional pathways
- Ensuring that courses remain relevant to evolving social and economic needs
Employability is not only about jobs. It is about preparing young people to live fulfilling lives, as responsible citizens, thoughtful individuals, and contributors to society. GER will rise meaningfully only when students feel that higher education is shaping their futures in ways that matter.
Physical Distance Still Shapes Educational Destiny
When we look at the higher education rate in India state wise, it becomes clear that geography remains one of the most powerful determinants of access. Rural India, with its vast and diverse landscapes, still carries a disproportionate share of the GER deficit.
Many of our rural youth face a simple but profound barrier: the nearest adequate college is too far away. Distances that seem small on paper, 20 or 30 kilometres, become formidable when transportation is unreliable, roads are unsafe, and household responsibilities demand time and energy.
As a result, rural young people, especially women, are far less likely to enrol in higher education. Even when they do enrol, commuting challenges often lead to higher dropout rates. Families worry about safety, costs, and cultural norms that discourage long-distance travel.
Digital and online education can ease this gap, but only partially. Connectivity is uneven. Access to devices varies dramatically. And digital learning cannot replace the emotional and social experience of a real campus for a first-generation learner.
So, the rural challenge must be addressed through three parallel strategies:
- Strengthening rural public institutions, especially high-quality government colleges that can serve as local anchor centres of learning.
- Investing in safe transport, hostels, and community-based support systems so that students, especially young women, can attend institutions beyond their immediate locality.
- Building hybrid learning models, where digital content complements physical teaching, reducing the need for daily travel without compromising learning quality.
This is not only a logistical issue. It is a question of justice. If a young person’s educational future is determined by their postal code, then we have not truly achieved equity in education India.
Rural India holds immense potential, and its youth carry aspirations as strong and bright as those in cities. Bridging the rural access gap is, therefore, essential, not just to raise GER, but to honour the dignity of every learner.
Knowledge Ecosystem to Support GER Growth
If we look closely at the higher education landscape, one aspect that requires honest reflection is our research capacity. Expanding GER is not only about enrolling more students; it is about strengthening the intellectual infrastructure that underpins learning.
Globally, high-GER countries are also high-research ecosystems. They produce knowledge at scale and integrate students into environments where inquiry, discovery, and innovation are everyday experiences. But in India, the situation is quite different.
Our annual PhD output, around 25,000 doctoral graduates, is modest for a country of our size. China produces nearly twice that number. The United States produces far more. This gap is not about competition; it is about the ways in which research capability shapes the health of a university system.
A university that cannot support strong research programs struggles to attract and retain talented faculty. Without active research, classrooms rely heavily on textbooks rather than inquiry. Students learn concepts, but they do not learn how knowledge is made.
For India to expand GER meaningfully, we must pursue research strengthening at the same time. This includes:
- Building research clusters in public universities
- Increasing funding for early-career scholars
- Creating partnerships between universities, industry, and communities
- Ensuring that research addresses India’s pressing developmental challenges
Research is not a luxury. It is the backbone of academic quality. And academic quality is the backbone of sustainable GER expansion. If we aspire to a system with genuine mass participation, we must also aspire to a system rooted in knowledge creation, not just knowledge transmission.
The Shift in Student Aspirations
Over the past decade, I have visited hundreds of colleges, spoken to students in remote villages and in the largest metropolitan cities. One message emerges clearly: the aspirations of India’s young people are changing faster than our institutions.
Twenty years ago, higher education was seen largely as a path to stability, a steady job, a secure livelihood. Today, young people are looking for meaning, flexibility, creativity, and global exposure. They are drawn towards interdisciplinary programs, design, social sciences, environmental studies, entrepreneurship, and emerging fields that barely existed a decade ago.
This shift in aspirations plays an important role in shaping GER growth. Students want:
- Opportunities to explore multiple disciplines
- Internships and hands-on learning
- Social impact engagement
- Flexible pathways that allow them to work, learn, and upskill
- Exposure to global ideas and networks
Many institutions, especially in rural and smaller urban areas, still offer a narrow range of traditional programs. This mismatch between offering and aspiration quietly suppresses enrolment. Students do not simply want a degree; they want an education that aligns with their lives and ambitions.
If we wish to raise the higher education rate in India state wise, we must understand this evolving aspiration landscape. Our campuses need to become places of possibility, not just qualification. We must redesign curricula, expand interdisciplinary opportunities, and support students through mentoring, counselling, and career services.
Young people are not turning away from higher education. They are turning toward a different kind of higher education. Our task is to meet them where they are, not expect them to fit into models built for a different era.
To Conclude
India stands at a moment of possibility. Our young population is a source of enormous strength, but only if we nurture it with care and foresight.
As we look toward 2030, we must not be afraid of bold, systemic change. Incremental improvements will not bridge the GER gap. We need a renewed imagination, one that sees higher education not as a privilege for the few but as a shared societal commitment.
The global average GER of around 40% is not a distant benchmark. It is a reminder that India must walk firmly on the path it has already begun. The challenge is large, but so is our collective capacity to respond.
If we centre equity, build trust, strengthen institutions, and use technology wisely, we can ensure that every young person finds a place in the future India is trying to build.
This is not just an educational goal. It is a national promise.
