Mumbai, 15th January, 2026: 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% of Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are still not industry-ready, and only 16.67% of institutions achieve placement rates of 76–100% within six months of graduation. Structural gaps are pronounced with just 5.44% reporting highly engaged alumni networks, 23.02% involving industry professionals in teaching, and over 60% have not explored embedding industry certifications into their programs.
The report highlights a clear roadmap for HEIs to achieve the desired intent, i.e., employability. Curriculum relevance has emerged as the biggest structural constraint. Only 8.6% of institutions report full industry alignment across programs, while 16.9% say they are partially aligned in select courses. In contrast, more than half (51.01%) acknowledge they are not aligned at all, and less than one-fifth (19.1%) say alignment efforts are still under implementation, leaving a majority of institutions without effective industry linkage at scale.
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Commenting on the findings, Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO, TeamLease Edtech, shared, “What stands out in this report is the clear gap between aspiration and execution. 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.”
The analysis further sheds light on experiential learning, which is widely seen as critical to job readiness, but still lacks structure and standardization. Internships are integrated across all programs in just 9.4% of institutions and within select programs in 17.4% institutions, taking the overall adoption to 26.8%. Meanwhile, only 9.68% of institutions use live industry projects, with 37.8% of institutions lacking in internship integration. This indicates that a large share of students continue 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% of institutions report highly engaged alumni communities, and 15.09% 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.
Less than 10% of institutions report full curriculum alignment with industry, with only 16.67% of them achieving placements within 6 months
Only 23% of HEIs have engaged industry professionals in their programs
Over 60% of institutions haven’t even explored industry-embedded certifications
Study strongly suggests making industry-aligned curriculum and certifications non-negotiable, not optional
Cement experiential learning through mandatory internships and live industry projects
The study also points to limited industry participation in classroom teaching. Only 7.56% of institutions integrate Professors of Practice across multiple programs, while another 15.46% 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 how programs 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.
