As employability becomes a stated priority across Indian higher education, outcomes remain uneven on the ground. A new TeamLease Edtech report: From Degree Factories to Employability Hubs, shows that, despite a growing emphasis on employability, nearly 75 per cent of Indian higher education institutions (HEIs) are still not industry-ready and that only 16.67 per cent of institutions have achieved placement rates of 76-100 per cent within six months of graduation. Structural gaps are pronounced, with just 5.44 per cent reporting highly engaged alumni networks, 23.02 per cent involving industry professionals in teaching, and over 60 per cent not having explored embedding industry certifications into their programmes.
The report highlights a clear roadmap for HEIs to achieve the desired intent – employability. Curriculum relevance has emerged as the biggest structural constraint, with only 8.6 per cent of institutions reporting full industry alignment across programmes. In comparison, 16.9 per cent say they are partially aligned in select courses. In contrast, more than half (51.01 per cent) acknowledge they are not aligned at all, and less than one-fifth (19.1 per cent) say alignment efforts are still under implementation, leaving a majority of institutions without effective industry linkage at scale.
“What stands out in this report is the clear gap between aspiration and execution,” affirms Shantanu Rooj, founder & CEO, TeamLease Edtech, commenting on the findings. “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. 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. 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”.
Limited exposure
The analysis further sheds light on experiential learning, which is widely seen as critical to job readiness, but still lacks structure and standardisation. Internships are integrated across all programmes in just 9.4 per cent of the institutions and within select programmes in 17.4 per cent of the institutions, taking the overall adoption rate to 26.8 per cent. Meanwhile, only 9.68 per cent of the institutions use live industry projects, with 37.8 per cent of the institutions lacking in internship integration. This indicates that a large share of the students continues to graduate with limited exposure to real-world work environments, reducing opportunities to build practical, job-relevant skills before entering the employment market.
Another underutilised lever is alumni engagement. While alumni networks are often cited as a powerful bridge to industry, only 5.44 per cent of the institutions report highly engaged alumni communities, while 15.09 per cent describe them as fairly engaged. For the majority, alumni relationships remain limited, minimal or absent. This weakens access to informal hiring channels, mentorship and industry referrals that typically play a significant role in early-career job placement and career navigation for graduates.
The study also points to limited industry participation in classroom teaching. Only 7.56 per cent of institutions integrate professors of practice across multiple programmes, while another 15.46 per cent restrict such engagement to a few departments. This leaves the majority of HEIs without sustained exposure to current industry practices, further constraining the relevance of classroom learning to workplace requirements.
Taken together, the findings suggest that, while employability has moved to the centre of institutional strategy, execution remains fragmented across curriculum design, industry collaboration and experiential learning. Without structural changes in the way programmes are built and delivered, the employability factor will merely become a buzzword, rather than a reality.
This report is based on 1,071 responses across public, private, and deemed universities, as well as autonomous and affiliated colleges in India. The study uses a structured, close-ended survey to examine how institutions are embedding employability within academic systems, covering areas such as curriculum alignment, internships, digital and professional skills, industry engagement, alumni involvement, placement outcomes and future priorities. Data was collected digitally through voluntary and anonymous participation and analysed using percentage-based insights to surface system-level trends, rather than ranking institutions or establishing causality.
TeamLease EdTech is India’s leading learning & employability solution researcher, which has helped HEIs launch, run and manage their own online programmes, improve the employability of their students through their apprenticeship programmes and helps employers build talent supply chains.