New Delhi: India has added 34,840 colleges and 980 universities since 2001, but the expansion has not kept pace with where its young population is concentrated, with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand facing the widest capacity gaps, according to a new report.
Titled ‘The Geography of Higher Education in India’, the report was released Wednesday by education advisory firm Jetri and Impactica.org, a non-profit data platform. It examines the geographical distribution of India’s higher-education institutions.
According to the report, the number of colleges per lakh people in the 18–23 age group rose from nine to 37, but the expansion has been unevenly distributed, with states that have large young populations continuing to face gaps in higher education capacity.
The report says that states with the largest youth populations will experience increasing pressure on existing institutions if higher education infrastructure does not expand in line with demographic change. “Without additional capacity, regional disparities in access are likely to widen,” it says.
Bihar, UP, Jharkhand face widest gaps
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand have fewer higher education institutions relative to the size of their young populations, the report finds. It adds that these three states present large and growing youth populations, lower university and college density, lower Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) and higher fertility.
It warns if the current capacity remains unchanged, one university would serve approximately 10.3 lakh people aged 3–17 in Bihar and six lakh in Uttar Pradesh.
The mismatch is also reflected in higher education participation. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), which measures the proportion of people enrolled in higher education relative to the population in the 18–23 age group, was 17.66 percent in Bihar in 2023-24, compared to 19.43 percent in Jharkhand and 25.97 percent in Uttar Pradesh, against a national GER of about 30 percent.
According to the Central government’s All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2022-23, Uttar Pradesh had 8,310 colleges and 91 universities, compared with 1,175 colleges and 37 universities in Bihar, and 425 colleges and 34 universities in Jharkhand.
The absolute number of institutions does not by itself, however, indicate whether a state has adequate higher education capacity. Uttar Pradesh has more than seven times as many colleges as Bihar, but its much larger population and youth cohort also generate far greater potential demand for higher education.
A February 2025 NITI Aayog report, ‘Expanding Quality Higher Education through States and State Public Universities’, found that UP had 0.3 universities per lakh people aged 18–23, compared with the national average of 0.8. This illustrates why institutional numbers need to be read alongside the size of the population they serve.
“The story is no longer simply about expanding capacity. It is about matching capacity to demand. India can already see where the next pressure points will emerge, creating an opportunity to plan before those students arrive,” said Vrunda Bansode, Founder and CEO of Impacatica.org.
Also Read: Why foreign universities alone won’t fix India’s higher education crisis
28% of universities in 20 districts
According to the report, the concentration becomes sharper at the district level. Twenty districts account for 28 percent of India’s universities, while colleges are heavily clustered around a smaller set of major education hubs.
For instance, Bengaluru Urban has 1,225 colleges and Jaipur 809, making them the two biggest college concentrations in the country.
Higher education hubs are not limited to the biggest metros. Sikar in Rajasthan has two universities and 374 colleges, Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh has one university and 338 colleges, while Belagavi in Karnataka has three universities and 317 colleges.
The concentration suggests that factors beyond metropolitan scale—including sustained local demand and investment—have helped shape these education hubs.
Overall, 173 districts have 100 or more colleges, highlighting how institutional capacity has developed around particular geographical poles rather than being evenly distributed across the country.
The west, south and north account for most of India’s higher education institutions, while the east and northeast, despite being home to a substantial share of the population, have comparatively fewer institutions, the report states.
Building higher education capacity
The report recommends aligning future institution-building with emerging demographic centres, with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand illustrating the gaps that need to be addressed.
It recommended developing higher education ecosystems rather than isolated institutions. Successful education hubs combine universities, colleges and regional connectivity, while local capacity remains important because most students continue to study within their own state.
The report’s broader argument is that India has spent the past 25 years proving it can build higher education capacity at scale. The next challenge is to ensure that new capacity is built where the next generation of students will be.
Shreyasi Singh, Managing Partner at Jetri, said: “India has already demonstrated that it can build higher education at an extraordinary scale. The next test is precision: understanding where future students will be, where capacity is weakest and where new institutions can have the greatest impact on opportunity and regional growth.”
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)