According to CARE Ratings, the second-largest credit rating agency in India, the Indian education sector is valued at Rs.3.83 trillion (2012-13 estimate), of which higher education accounts for 59.7%. A CARE report nicknames higher education as ‘the big daddy’ with the introduction,
“The strong growth in Higher Education, the largest contributor to the industry revenue, is fuelled by higher degree of specialization in course content coupled with increasing no. of courses offered and higher fees. However, the segment is facing the issues pertaining to intake of students, quality of education, employability etc.”
IBEF, a Trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to promote the ‘Made in India’ brand to overseas markets pegs the present Indian education sector at Rs.5.9 trillion, with higher education contributing 59.7 per cent of the market size. On its website, IBEF says,
“The higher education sector in India is poised for an average growth of 18 per cent per year till 2020.”
“Higher education in India is undergoing a huge change since last decade. There are over 600 million people in India, under 25 years’ old, potential candidates who would continue education, given the right kind of opportunity and convenience.”
Reinforcing this view, a British Council report released in February 2014, titled Understanding India: The future of higher education and opportunities for international cooperation, says in their Foreword,
“…its middle classes that demand higher education will swell to over 500 million people in the next ten years. India’s higher education system, originally designed to serve the elite, will now have to serve the people. Innovation and change are required and understanding that change will be essential.”
And yet, in India, there is little talk of the quality of higher education demanded by the students, their parents, and prospective employers in the industry. As far as global university rankings go, such as the Times Higher Education rankings or the Quacquarelli Symonds rankings, the existing universities and colleges in India have a long way to go to provide quality education to their students consistently year after year – and, therefore, be recognised as leading institutes of higher education.
No wonder universities and colleges in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Singapore, among other countries, are eyeing India as a large source of their international students! Most of these foreign universities and colleges, almost undoubtedly, offer higher education of superior quality than what is available in India; thereby, attracting students globally and from India. Every year, 200,000 or so students from India go abroad to study in a foreign university or college. This number will now increase in the next ten years.
[Citation: CARE Report on Higher Education (PDF); IBEF education sector snapshot (IBEF website); Understanding India: The future of higher education and opportunities for international cooperation (PDF – The British Council)]