{
  "id": 10994256,
  "title": "Pressure Of Higher Education Is Getting To Students",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/pressure-of-higher-education-is-getting-to-students",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-30T16:31:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Press Journal",
    "slug": "free-press-journal",
    "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/analysis/pressure-of-higher-education-is-getting-to-students"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In India, the pursuit of higher education has become increasingly stressful for students, with suicides among those pursuing higher education rising sharply over the past decade. The National Crime Records Bureau reported a 65% increase in student suicides, from around 8,400 in 2013 to over 14,000 in 2022, despite representing only 8% of total suicides in the country. This disturbing trend has prompted the Supreme Court to appoint a National Task Force (NTF) to investigate the underlying issues and recommend solutions.\n\nThe NTF survey, which covered approximately 2.43 lakh students across India's higher education institutions, revealed a grim picture of campus life. While suicides were found to be the most extreme manifestation of the students' distress, the survey also uncovered that 15% of students experienced overwhelming or distress, 9% had suicidal thoughts, and a staggering 34% felt like outsiders on campus. The NTF's interim report identified deep-rooted social discrimination, rampant sexual harassment, caste-based humiliation, gender discrimination, hostel curfews, moral policing, language gaps, faculty vacancies, and delays in scholarship disbursement as some of the major issues plaguing the higher education system.\n\nThe NTF's findings confirm that the problems with India's higher education system are not limited to individual mental health vulnerabilities but are deeply entrenched in the societal and institutional structures. The Supreme Court's guidelines, while promising, have not been adequately implemented, as only 3.5% of the nearly 60,383 surveyed institutions responded to the NTF survey. This lack of accountability and response highlights the urgent need for a comprehensive overhaul of the higher education system in India, focusing on creating a supportive and discrimination-free environment for students. Without such changes, the noble purpose of education remains unfulfilled, and the potential of countless students continues to be stifled.",
  "summary": "“Education in the true sense,” wrote India’s celebrated philosopher-educator Jiddu Krishnamurti, “is helping the individual to be mature and free, to flower greatly in love and goodness. That is what we should be interested in, and not in shaping the child according to some idealistic pattern.” How far India’s education system has strayed from the noble purposes of education is reflected in the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}