Survey finds majority of Indian HEIs still not industry-ready
As employability becomes a stated priority across India’s higher education landscape, a new nationwide survey reveals that outcomes remain uneven and largely aspirational. A recent report by TeamLease Edtech titled From Degree Factories to Employability Hubs highlights that nearly 75 per cent of Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are still not industry-ready, pointing to deep structural gaps between intent and execution.
The survey shows that only 16.67 per cent of institutions achieve placement rates of 76–100 per cent within six months of graduation, underlining the limited success of employability-focused reforms. Structural weaknesses are evident across key indicators: just 5.44 per cent of institutions report having highly engaged alumni networks, only 23.02 per cent involve industry professionals in teaching, and more than 60 per cent have not explored embedding industry-recognised certifications into their academic programmes.
Curriculum relevance has emerged as the most significant constraint. According to the findings, only 8.6 per cent of institutions report full industry alignment across their programmes, while 16.9 per cent are partially aligned in select courses. In contrast, over half of the institutions (51.01 per cent) acknowledge no alignment at all, and 19.1 per cent say alignment efforts are still under implementation. This leaves a large majority of HEIs without effective industry linkage at scale.
The survey also highlights gaps in experiential learning, widely considered critical for job readiness. Internships are integrated across all programmes in just 9.4 per cent of institutions and in select programmes in 17.4 per cent, bringing total adoption to 26.8 per cent. Live industry projects are used by only 9.68 per cent of institutions, while 37.8 per cent report no internship integration at all. As a result, a significant proportion of students continue to graduate with limited exposure to real-world work environments.
Alumni engagement remains another underutilised lever. While alumni networks are often a key bridge between academia and industry, only 5.44 per cent of institutions describe their alumni as highly engaged, and 15.09 per cent as fairly engaged. For the majority, alumni relationships are minimal or inactive, restricting access to mentorship, referrals, and informal hiring channels that often support early-career employment.
Industry participation in classroom teaching is also limited. The survey finds that only 7.56 per cent of institutions integrate Professors of Practice across multiple programmes, while 15.46 per cent restrict such engagement to a few departments. Most HEIs therefore lack sustained exposure to current industry practices, affecting the workplace relevance of academic learning.
Commenting on the findings, Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO of TeamLease Edtech, noted that the report exposes a clear gap between aspiration and execution. He emphasised that without curriculum co-creation with industry, mandatory internships, applied learning through live projects, and formal employer partnerships, employability will remain an outcome institutions aim for but struggle to deliver.
The survey is based on 1,071 responses from public, private, and deemed universities, as well as autonomous and affiliated colleges across India. Using a structured, close-ended methodology, the study analysed how institutions are embedding employability into academic systems, offering percentage-based insights into system-level trends rather than institutional rankings.
