American Higher Ed Needs An India Strategy
Today is India’s Republic Day. This commemorates when India’s Constitution went into effect on January 26, 1950.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time with relatives in India. I loved my family, but their living conditions were quite different. There was no mega fridge in their house. The cows blocked the traffic. I got sick every single visit. I missed baseball and video games.
Fast forward to 2015, I started visiting India much more regularly. I was overwhelmed and in awe. What a difference a few decades make!
Consider this: India today has more broadband subscribers than the United States has citizens. The economy has had a faster growth rate than the US. The number of unicorns — companies with over a billion in valuation — has skyrocketed. When I would visit the Whitefield neighborhood of Bangalore I was blown away. Whitefield is a gleaming business district, emblazoned with the logos of Fortune Global 500 companies like IBM and Accenture. Walking among these glass palaces, I might as well have been in Silicon Valley.
Across almost every sector, India is poised for takeoff. And Indian higher education looks especially promising. With around 35 million students in post-secondary students, the country is already the world’s largest English-speaking higher education market — well above America’s mere 20 million. Last year, after years of debate, the Indian parliament finally passed Prime Minister Modi’s National Education Policy. Among other things, the N.E.P. calls for doubling the higher ed participation rate within 15 years. If India achieves this — and based on personal experience, I am optimistic — it will add another roughly 35 million post-secondary students, in the process leaving the current largest market in the world — China — in the dust. (I’m not the only one optimistic on Indian education — global ed tech investing in India in 2019 was $2 Billion — now equaling the US!)
Even with all its seemingly boundless economic pep, India cannot possibly achieve this enrollment target by building thousands of brick-and-mortar colleges from scratch. Indeed, the National Education Policy itself acknowledges this and points toward two alternate routes to success: work-relevant online programs and international collaborations.
Our American colleges, with the broad focus and mass participation, are placed especially well to help get Indian higher ed to the next level. India is rightly known around the world for its engineering schools; but outside of a handful of new and innovative institutions such as Ashoka University in Delhi, there is remarkably little in the way of liberal arts. Equally, while the country boasts a number of elite institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology — eye-wateringly selective via its grueling entrance exams — it lags far behind in quality mid-tier or community colleges to serve the majority.
For U.S. colleges facing flat or even shrinking enrolments over the next 15 years, India’s ambition could be a lifeline, as well as an opportunity to make a huge difference. But they will need to be quick. Already, British and Australian institutions enjoy a head start, launching many programs tailored for the Indian market. For American higher ed, there is no time to waste!
