BBC reports that at present, only about 12% of young people in India get university admission and the Indian government has a target to increase university enrollment by 30% by 2030. Dr. Rick Levin, CEO of Coursera, the California company that offers “Moocs” (massive open online courses), says this is “hugely ambitious” and then qualifies it further as “frankly almost impossible” if such an expansion were to depend on building new bricks and mortar universities. It would mean establishing “literally a couple of thousand universities” as well as expanding the existing institutions, he says.
Coursera, with 17 million registered students and free online courses from 140 universities including Yale, Stanford, Columbia and Edinburgh, wants to be part of India’s drive to expand access to higher education.
However, since Coursera courses do not lead to an external exam or an accredited degree, Levin says that if employers accept online Mooc courses as relevant for job applications it would help close the skill gap.
U.K.’s distance learning university, the Open University, also has ambitions to increase its reach in India, not by offering courses directly, but by working with local institutions and support courses accredited by Indian universities.
“They will deliver their own local qualifications,” but with content and online teaching resources provided by the Open University, says director of external engagement Steve Hill who sees distance learning as a practical way for India to reach its target for another 14 million university places in less than 15 years. The Indian higher education sector could not realistically expand that quickly in terms of traditional universities, he says. “The only way it is going to reach its target is online. India has to embrace distance learning,” he adds.
A recent report from the British Council forecast that by 2025 India will have the biggest student-age population in the world. It means a decade of even more intense competition from international universities for a share of this expanding market.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
