Overview
- India needs approximately 86.11 million higher-education enrolments by 2035 to reach a 50% Gross Enrolment Ratio under NEP 2020.
- A sustained capacity growth of about 5.3% annually is required over the next decade, including significant increases in student seats and faculty.
- Traditional campuses are deemed insufficient at this scale, with the report urging digital universities, virtual learning ecosystems and credit-based online programmes.
- The findings draw on three roundtables with more than ten northern-region universities, supported by secondary research and analysis.
- The report prioritizes job readiness as about 40% of core skills may change by 2030, advocating micro-credentials, modular credits, work-integrated learning and AI-enabled assessments, and it warns that failure to transform could waste the demographic dividend.