By Shantanu Rooj
For decades, the ‘degree’ has carried enormous weight in Indian society, creating access to organised employment, and offering millions of families a credible route to mobility. In a country where higher education enrolment has crossed 43.3 million students and gross enrolment ratio has risen to 28.4%, the degree remains one of the most important instruments of aspiration and inclusion.
But the industry is asking a harder question: what exactly does the degree prove?
This question is urgent because the nature of work is changing faster than traditional education. Research suggests 39% of workers’ existing skills may be outdated by 2030. The implication is clear: a qualification earned once cannot remain the only evidence of capability for a working life requiring repeated reinvention. The issue is not whether degrees are relevant, but whether they measure the right things.
The limits of the credit hour
Much of higher education depends on familiar logic: courses completed, credits earned, and examinations passed. India’s National Credit Framework has taken an important step by creating a common architecture across academic, vocational, and experiential learning, with 30 notional learning hours counted as one credit. This reform allows mobility and portability.
But credits are proxies. They tell us that learning time was assigned, not whether capability was built. Learning analytics shows that credit hours explain little variance compared with behavioural indicators like assignments, course engagement, and learning activity patterns. Time allocated to learning is not the same as learning achieved. Two students may earn the same credits, but leave with vastly different levels of problem-solving ability. The system records both similarly, but employers do not experience them similarly.
India’s employability paradox
India’s challenge is a gap between aspiration and readiness. While recent estimates suggest 55% of Indian graduates are globally employable, almost half still struggle to demonstrate work readiness. TeamLease EdTech’s research, ‘From Degree Factories to Employability Hubs’, shows that 75% of Indian higher education institutions surveyed are not fully industry-ready, and only 16.67% achieved placement rates above 75% within six months of graduation. Furthermore, only 8.6% reported full curriculum alignment with industry.
Employability can no longer be treated as an outcome that comes after education. It must be embedded into the design of education itself.
Hiring is moving ahead
Employers still value degrees as an entry filter that signals discipline and foundational knowledge, but they are increasingly looking for evidence of applied capability: internships, apprenticeships, live projects, problem-solving ability, digital fluency, and communication. TeamLease EdTech’s ‘Career Outlook Report for HY1-2026’ indicates fresher hiring intent improved to 73%, but preferences are shifting from qualification as proof of completion to capability as proof of readiness.
From attendance to evidence
Practical learning cannot remain a decorative layer added at the end; work-linked and apprenticeship-embedded models must become central to higher education. Future-ready systems must move from attendance-based assurance to evidence-based assurance, capturing portfolios, project outcomes, employer feedback, and performance in real work settings.
The debate should not be framed as degrees versus skills. India needs degrees for legitimacy, access, and scale, and skills to convert education into livelihood. The next phase of higher education reform must move from credit accumulation to capability demonstration, from course completion to career readiness, and from degree factories to employability hubs. That is how we make education work harder for learners, employers, and the country.
The author is founder & CEO, TeamLease Edtech
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of Financial Express.