Country needs 1,500 more universities by 2030: Study

Mumbai: With a staggering 140 million collegegoing students by 2030, the country will need at least another 1,500 universities to meet the demand, which is going to nearly double by then, says a report.

There are 736 universities in the country serving 28.6 million students now, according to a report released by the UK-India Business Council, Tuesday.

To become a 21st-century global superpower, however, the country needs to place excellence, equal access and employability at the heart of expanding its higher education system, the report said.

To achieve its social and economic ambitions, the country needs engineers, data scientists, teachers, healthcare professionals, urban planners, architects, managers, social workers, pharmacists, environmental scientists and a whole range of other professionals on an unprecedented scale.

For this, the government has to create policies to allow foreign universities to operate in the country and hopefully the new higher education policy will help achieve this by enhancing the systemic capacity to produce high quality graduates on a more consistent and widespread basis, said the report.

In short, the report said the country needs not just more graduates, but more high-quality graduates, who have both the necessary workplace skills and specialist knowledge to work at a global standard.

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In developing the criteria to select foreign university entrance in to the domestic higher education market and the policymakers have recommended that only 'the top 200 in the world' be allowed to collaborate with the best domestic institutions.

However, limiting participation to the top 200 globally ranked institutions will not significantly mobilise global expertise, resource, and investment necessary to build a higher education system worthy of the economic ambitions, it added.