Three in four colleges still not industry-ready

New Delhi: Three in four of India’s higher education institutions remain unprepared to meet industry requirements, with fewer than one in five achieving high placement outcomes within six months of graduation, a TeamLease Edtech report released on Wednesday found.The findings are part of From Degree Factories to Employability Hubs, a nationwide study that examines how effectively higher education institutions are embedding employability into curriculum design, industry engagement and student outcomes.The report is based on 1,071 responses from public, private and deemed universities, as well as autonomous and affiliated colleges across India. Despite employability being a stated priority across campuses, only 16.67% of institutions reported placement rates of 76-100% within six months of graduation. Shantanu Rooj, founder, TeamLease Edtech, said, “If employability is truly the goal, curriculum co-creation with industry, mandatory internships, applied learning through live projects, and formal employer partnerships must become fundamental to how institutions function and are evaluated, not optional add-ons.”Structural gaps remain widespread, with just 23.02% of institutions involving industry professionals in teaching, and over 60% yet to explore embedding industry-recognised certifications into their programmes.Curriculum alignment emerged as the most significant constraint. Only 8.6% of institutions reported full alignment with industry needs across programmes, while 16.9% said alignment exists in select courses. In contrast, more than half of the institutions—51.01%—acknowledged no alignment at all, and another 19.1% said alignment efforts were still underway, leaving the majority without effective industry linkage at scale.“While employability remains a central objective, a significant number of institutions are yet to fully align their curricula with industry needs, build strong employer partnerships, or integrate recognised industry certifications into their programmes,” Rooj said. “This reveals a system that is structurally underprepared to deliver the outcomes it aims to achieve. At its core, this is a system design challenge.”Experiential learning, widely viewed as critical to job readiness, also remains limited. Internships are embedded across all programmes in only 9.4% of institutions and in select programmes in another 17.4%, taking total adoption to 26.8%. At the same time, 37.8% of institutions reported no meaningful internship integration. Live industry projects are used by just 9.68% of institutions, indicating limited exposure to real-world work environments for a large share of students.Alumni engagement, another potential bridge to employment, remains weak. Only 5.44% of institutions reported highly engaged alumni networks, while 15.09% described them as fairly engaged. For most institutions, alumni involvement remains minimal or absent, restricting access to mentorship, referrals and informal hiring channels.Industry participation in classroom teaching is similarly limited. Professors of Practice are integrated across multiple programmes in just 7.56% of institutions, while 15.46% restrict such engagement to select departments, leaving the majority without sustained exposure to current industry practices.