New Delhi, July 28 -- India's gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education is at 28.3%, up by five percentage points in the past 10 years. This represents the proportion of those between the ages of 18 and 23 enrolled for college or higher-level courses. The National Education Policy aims to increase this ratio to 50% in the next decade. That would imply a faster rate of increasing college and university attendance than has been achieved in the past decade.

At present, roughly 11 million young people are graduating annually with a degree or diploma of some kind. The problem of getting more youth enrolled is not merely constrained by the lack of seats in colleges.

For instance, in the recent July frenzy for admissions to junior colleg...