Crores pursue BA, BCom degrees with weak job links: NITI Aayog flags urgency of reimagining higher education in India
The report flags that many young people are earning conventional degrees but not necessarily the skills employers need and calls for greater industry participation and wider use of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models to bridge the gap between education and employment.
A recent NITI Aayog report has highlighted an urgent need to restructure India's higher education system, as crores of students are enrolling in generic undergraduate degrees like B.A., B.Sc., and B.Com, which often lack strong links to employment. Only 8.25% of graduates are employed in roles aligned to their qualifications, while 13% of all graduates and 20.4% of graduate women are unemployed, far exceeding the national unemployment rate of 3.2%.
The report suggests that industry participation and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models are crucial for bridging the gap between education and employment. The report calls for a shift towards specialised, job-linked programs, such as B.A. Hospitality, B.Com. Analytics, and B.Sc. Applied Technology, in high-enrolment degrees.
Additionally, work-integrated and apprenticeship embedded degree programmes need to be scaled significantly to provide students with demonstrable work experience. The think tank also emphasizes the need for flexible delivery formats, such as modular, part-time, hybrid, and earn-while-you-learn models, to enable students to balance learning with work.
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