The research report on ‘Impact of financial resources on higher education choices in India” on 29 October 2021 was launched by Barbara Wickham, Director British Council India through a virtual platform.

This research aimed to broaden understanding of the impact of household income and socio-economic background on higher education access and choice in India and provide a clearer picture of the financial profile of India’s domestic students enrolled in the key categories of domestic institutions.  The insight on income thresholds above which various forms of higher education become accessible will be useful to Indian higher education authorities, private providers, researchers as well the overseas universities with interest in Indian market.

The launch event was teamed with a presentation and a panel discussion with academics from Indian higher education institutions, and key government stakeholders. The panellists were Prof N K Varghese, Vice Chancellor, National Institute of Education, Planning and Administration, Prof Limbadri, Chairman, Telangana State Higher Education Council, and Dr Nitin Karmalkar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Pune.

Key takeaways from the discussion

• Report was well received by the panellists and participants as it is one of the few studies that is done from the perspective of the user who is paying for education.
• A thorough consideration on rephrasing the tuition fee to cost of education was discussed. The tuition fee doesn’t entail the other costs like living expenses and in many cases the huge capitation fee which is charged by some private engineering and medical colleges.  
• It was reiterated by all panellists that there is a huge variation in tuition fee between various institutions such as the premier Indian Institute of Technology/Indian Institute of Management/private colleges/conventional degree colleges/state run institutions.  The tuition fee differs from central to state universities from one state to another state and most of the time from one course to another.
• If an India state has high concentration of private institution vs public institution, the cost of tuition fees would be higher and vice versa.
• There are state funded schemes which are helping students from marginalised  communities to pursue their education by providing fee re-imbursement which has led to increased enrolment at higher education institutions including in Telangana.
• By far the most important sources of funding for HE study is support from family, followed by loan from an official financial institution. 
• There is exponential growth in student loans, and the total amount of student loans taken in a year is more than the budgetary allocation of central government on higher education. 
• The pandemic has opened more avenues for partnership with foreign universities for blended learning making high quality education more accessible. This is affordable for students. 

The copy of the presentation is attached with the report and to access the  report on the British Council India website, use this link.

If you have any questions, please write to Sandeepa Sahay