CollegeDekho's HEART 2024 Reveals Education Insights

CollegeDekho, India's largest higher education ecosystem, has released its inaugural HEART report, providing a comprehensive analysis of the current trends and dynamics shaping higher education in the country, amid a pivotal transformation driven by digitalisation, demographic shifts and evolving economic landscapes.

The "HEART Report 2024" by CollegeDekho reveals that education is the top searched stream in India, with digital access driving career orientation. Students prefer courses beyond commerce and humanities, exploring BTech and MBA degrees. Computer science courses are leading the graph, reflecting the high demand for tech professionals in the digital age. Inter-state migration for digital-enabled students decreases from 36 per cent to 28 per cent, while intra-state migration increases in some key states.

India's higher education system must be a key factor in its goal to become a global top three economy. Despite 11 million students enrolling annually, India's Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 28.3 per cent. Mental health concerns persist due to lack of professional guidance for college selection and career choices, causing anxiety among students. Ensuring equitable distribution of colleges and universities is crucial for this vision.

CollegeDekho has assisted over 1.2 million students in their academic journeys, providing personalised guidance for college education opportunities. The HEART report highlights the growing impact of digital access on career orientation. CollegeDekho's vision is to empower the nation's higher education system through a tech-enabled college guidance and enrolment platform, offering future-skill-oriented degrees under its CollegeDekho Assured offering. The platform uses robust data analytics and a student-centric approach to address key pain points.

Positive trends in the Higher education landscape in India: 

Positive Trends in Higher Education Infrastructure: Encouragingly, the last five years have shown an improvement in India’s higher education ecosystem, with the more populous states beginning to establish a more appropriate number of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). This progress signifies the seeds of a more balanced educational infrastructure being sown. 

Trends in Migration for Higher Education in India: There has been a significant increase in the number of students preferring to stay within their state for higher education (Intra-state migration), rising from 31 per cent to 42 per cent over the past three years. Inter-state migration among digitally enabled students has declined from 36 per cent to 28 per cent, due to well-established private universities and expanding higher education ecosystems in states like Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. 

Trends highlighting challenges in higher education in India 

College Penetration in India: India has over 54,000 colleges and universities spread across its 28 states and 8 union territories. However, the distribution of these institutions is not always aligned with population density, leading to disparities in higher education infrastructure.  

College Density vs Population: Compared to the United States, which has one college for every 7,750 people, India has one college for every 3,240 people. However, college density varies significantly at the state and district levels. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of colleges, while Bihar and West Bengal lag despite their substantial youth populations. 

Lack of awareness caused by lack of guidance is still an issue: Contrary to expectations, despite greater internet penetration, India's youth are not predominantly searching for job-oriented courses and still seeking safety. The HEART report reveals that 'Education' is the top searched stream among digitally empowered students but “IT” and “Science” following at 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Course selection trends:  

Digital enablement drives Career orientation: For digitally enabled enrolments, there is significant preference for Technology (BTech) and Management (MBA) degrees built and continuing. This contrasts with overall enrolments where Commerce and Humanities are more prevalent. 

Staying ahead of job market trends: While Computer Science courses continue to lead the graph by a huge margin, reflecting its continued popularity and the high demand for tech professionals in the digital age. Civil Engineering is making a notable comeback, mirroring India's focus on infrastructure and logistics development as part of its ambitions to become a top 3 economy in the world. 

Rapid Growth in Nursing: Nursing, while being a niche specialisation, ranks 2nd and is growing rapidly. This surge is also fuelled by the Government of India's push for Nursing Colleges and efforts to mainstream the profession which also offers the potential to work abroad and send remittances back to the country.