Industry Snapshot

India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world. The economic growth of the country is leading to a surge in demand for more engineers, management graduates, computer engineers, and many other professionals. Given the huge opportunity in the sector, there is a growing trend of private sector participation. According to a recent FICCI report on the private sector's participation in the Indian higher education, the country has displayed impressive growth over the last decade to become one of the world's largest systems of higher education. The number of institutions has grown at a CAGR of 11% while student enrolment has grown at a CAGR of 6%.

Given the Indian government's radical reforms and massive expansion plans in the education sector, a lot more schools and colleges are going to be opened across the country, including rural areas. According to the ASER (2012) report, over the last six years, private school enrolment in rural India has gone up by 5.5 percentage points.

Talent Challenges

While there is no official estimate of the number of teachers India will require by 2020, a rough estimate by the IIT’s pegs the country’s need at around 4.2 million lecturers to teach 42 million students at the higher educational level. The country is currently facing acute shortage of faculty at the higher education level. There exists a huge demand supply gap, and the sector is currently reeling under a huge talent crisis.

ABC's Perspective

At ABC Consultants we are closely following the sector and are tuned into the challenges as well as the dynamics of operating in this sector. Given the sharp gap in demand supply ratio, institutes are gradually coming forward and seeking consultants to recruit/retain the best talent.