Making scholarships integral to India’s academic culture

If India is to take its Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50%, the question is not only how many institutions the country can build, but who is actually able to walk through their gates and graduate.

India has been making gradual progress to expand capacity; the number of higher educational institutions has grown from 51,534 (2014-15) to over 70,000 last year, as per the 2025-26 Economic Survey. Yet the national GER stands at 29.5 (2022-23). Such limited participation highlights that seats alone do not create students. Education transforms lives when access, affordability, and academic quality come together. For many young Indians, especially in second-and third-tier towns, the binding constraint is not aspiration; it is the cost and risk of participation. This is why scholarships cannot remain a peripheral add-on to the system. They need to be designed, and tailored as an integral and embedded pathway into higher education.