What must change in India’s higher education for the next generation

India is standing at a very crucial moment in its higher education journey. Over the next decade, the country will add millions of young people to its working-age population. This should be a demographic dividend—but only if our colleges and universities prepare students not just to earn degrees, but to navigate work, leadership, and life in a fast-changing world.

Higher education in India has expanded rapidly in scale. We have more institutions, more seats, and higher enrolments than ever before. Yet employers repeatedly say graduates are not job-ready, while students say they feel anxious, confused, and unsure of their futures. Faculty, too, feel overburdened—expected to implement new curricula or technologies with little training or support. Clearly, change is needed.

When I was growing up, a good degree was seen as a ticket to stability: complete your graduation, find a job, and build a career. Today, that linear path no longer holds. Technology and automation are reshaping work faster than curricula can keep pace.

A young woman from a government college in rural Karnataka shared a telling experience. She had strong academic scores and a commerce degree, but froze during a job interview when asked to speak about herself. “No one ever taught me how to talk about myself,” she said. “We were taught only how to write answers.” Her story is not unique. Our system still rewards memory over meaning, rote learning over curiosity, and marks over mastery—leaving graduates qualified on paper but underconfident in practice.

Capability-driven learning

One of the biggest differences between education systems in successful countries and India lies in what students are taught and how they are assessed. India must move away from content-heavy syllabi toward capability-driven education. Knowledge matters, but what matters more is what students can do with that knowledge.

Critical thinking, communication, ethical reasoning, adaptability, and collaboration are no longer “soft skills”; they are core skills. Yet they remain largely absent from classrooms and assessments. Life skills must become an integral part of the curriculum.

Students often experience a breakthrough when asked a simple but unfamiliar question: What problem do you care about solving? For many, this is the first time learning connects to purpose. As one engineering student from Bihar said, “This is the first course where I wasn’t trying to guess the right answer. I was trying to find my own.”

A trained faculty can be transformational

Meaningful reform is impossible without placing faculty at the centre. Teachers are expected to deliver innovation without adequate training, time, or institutional support. Many want to experiment but are constrained by rigid systems and heavy administrative loads.

Where faculty are treated as co-creators, change is visible. In one college, a professor redesigned his class to include peer discussions and reflective writing after a leadership workshop. Attendance improved, participation increased, and the classroom felt energized. Over the next decade, India must invest in faculty development and reward teaching excellence.

Moving equity from access to outcomes

India has made progress in expanding access to higher education, especially for first-generation learners, women, and rural students. But access alone is not equity. Many students struggle with language barriers, digital gaps, and lack of social capital, often dropping out silently or graduating without confidence.

True equity means focusing on outcomes—retention, clarity, leadership pathways, and meaningful employment.

Rethinking assessment and success

India’s exam obsession has narrowed our definition of success. The future demands holistic assessment that values projects, portfolios, teamwork, and reflection alongside exams. Employers increasingly care about what candidates have built, led, and learned from failure—not just marks.

Higher education must reconnect with its larger purpose. Universities are not just talent pipelines for industry; they are spaces to build citizens, leaders, and problem-solvers. If India gets this right, higher education can become a powerful engine of opportunity. If not, we risk wasting the potential of an entire generation.

(The author is Director of Operations, Aspiring Leaders India Foundation)