What is a university? It’s a place of learning, defined by a curriculum set by the institution, and by pedagogic styles of educators recruited by the institution. Minus these two — in-house syllabus and in-house professors — is a university really a university?

Apparently it is — because across India, higher education institutions are, for certain disciplines, outsourcing curriculum, teaching, training, and even student placement to edtech firms, coaching academies and what are called industry partners.

Exact numbers are hard to pin down. GOI’s education ministry or UGC/AICTE or universities themselves don’t maintain databases. Universities are also reluctant to share even general information on the issue. The few people in universities who spoke to TOI did so off-record.

But there’s no doubt that in many cases, the classroom has been outsourced, the institution has become the interface, and this has happened quietly. University authorities say, off-record, the change is in response to three things: GOI’s new education policy (NEP), the rapid rise in the number of universities and colleges, and the speed and scale of tech transformation.

NEP greenlighted courses tailored to new areas of knowledge, with an emphasis on getting graduates job market-ready. What did that mean for universities? They had to — and wanted to, to remain relevant — offer subjects like data science, AI, fintech, blockchain. Plus, as universities and colleges proliferated — in the last 10 years, the number of universities has nearly doubled, from 760 to 1,338 — competition to attract students grew fiercer (see graphic). But universities didn’t have the faculty and, even if they did new recruitment, knowledge accretion in these areas happens so fast, there was no guarantee newbie teachers could have kept up.Outsourcing classrooms was the only option, higher education managers say. Whether this makes universities more responsive or more hollowedout remains an open question. What is not in doubt is that the centre of gravity is shifting — away from the university as a place where knowledge is made and taught, and towards one where it is assembled, branded and certified.

Whatever your take on this is, it’s important to remember this is not a story with villains. It’s a story of pressure points. for universities, the pressure to scale; for students, the pressure to stay employable; for everyone, the pressure to keep pace with a world that does not pause. Universities are not surrendering their core lightly; they are adapting because they feel they must.

Ex-UGC chairman Jagadesh Kumar is a realist. He says “students expect universities to offer courses related to cutting-edge disciplines… employers also expect graduates to be workready.” He recommends “structured partnership with industry”. But, he insists, the university should remain“the custodian of curriculum, assessment, and academic standards”.

SS Mantha, ex-chairman, AICTE, talks of what he sees as a slow unmooring of the university from functions it once held tightly at its core. That’s lamentable, he says, even if one acknowledges the pressure.

Innocent Beginnings

Outsourcing the classroom began innocently enough — at the edges. Buses and canteens. Hostels and housekeeping. Hospitality and maintenance. These were practical decisions, framed in terms of efficiency, modernisation, better focus. Universities would do what only universities do best, and everything else would be managed by someone else.
But the perimeter kept moving inward. The next functions outsourced were marketing, recruitment, admissions counselling, and of late, the financing of tuition that can be paid in EMIs.

Perhaps, universities had grown comfortable with the idea of outsourcing. So, when new courses became the norm, contracting out the core function wasn’t as difficult. Universities, as Mantha says, have become credentialing machines, degree-giving institutes. Inevitably, many colleges are increasingly identified and assessed not by who their faculty members are, but by who they are tied up with.

The Outsourcing Model

At the basic level, the business of universities outsourcing teaching to private companies works on revenue sharing. Students are charged different tuition fees for different ‘special courses’ they opt for. These fees are divvied up, usually 60:40, between the outside education provider and the university.

Information about the typical size of a deal is hard to obtain. Universities don’t want to provide any detail and edtech and industry partners are wary of sharing business numbers. But people familiar with the process said it’s an eminently viable business model and one that’s attracting many private companies.

Take Mumbai, for instance. A growing number of colleges in the city have begun outsourcing entire courses to private coaching academies. The shift is particularly visible in commerce and management streams, where institutions are under pressure to offer professional and job-linked qualifications alongside conventional degrees.

“Many of our students do not want to study a plain BCom anymore,” said a senior faculty member at one such college, requesting anonymity. “They want to pursue CA or CFA, and at the same time enrol for a BMS from an online private university in Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan.”

To meet this demand, the college has entered into a revenue-sharing arrangement with a coaching academy, under which the external partner runs the professional courses, brings in its own faculty and curriculum, and keeps 60% of the revenue, while the college retains 40%.

“Giving students a choice is good… courses like BMS are a stepping stone to an MBA. It’s almost like going shopping. Students are picking what they think is new and promising,” says Sunil Mantri, ex-principal, NM College. Some colleges, Mantri says, get the teaching done by the edtech partner but the faculty are shown on college rolls. TOI could not independently verify this.

What’s clear is that universities and affiliated colleges are feeling the pressure to create a brand. Some of this is reflected in BA, BSc and BCom having been split into endless subtypes, all clamouring for attention with adjectives like ‘global’, ‘smart’, or ‘innovative’. Every campus is in a race to offer something the next one doesn’t, as another professor put it.

The New Teachers

A Andre, CEO of DataTech Labs, which runs around 20 specialised programmes in areas such as data science, fraud analytics, smart manufacturing and diagnostic AI, works with 25 institutions — including 10 outside India — to deliver these courses. “These skills are now needed across domains,” Andre said. “From arts to commerce to science and technology, from law to music — colleges and universities are being asked to offer them because placement heads are looking for these capabilities.”

Andre said exposure and demand are jointly driving this shift. “Exposure is the mother of innovation and need is the father of change,” he said. “That combination is what is reshaping curricula across streams.”

Face Prep, for instance, which offered campus placement training for over 16 years, started the business of taking over and running degree programmes in 2023. The courses it handles are BCA or BSc in AI, data science and machine learning, BCom in fintech with AI, and BBA in ecommerce with digital marketing.

The CEO of another company, which provides similar services in healthcare courses in Karnataka, said: “These are specifically for programmes that need specialised curriculum, highly trained faculty, and skill labs. He says his company is “a training partner that produces industry-aligned modules and provides placement support and internships. But, he points out, “exams, assessment, and award of degrees are done by the colleges”.

Rajesh Kumar, CEO and co-founder of Kalvium, points to universities’ oldstyle faculties. Kalvium runs computer science engineering programmes in 17 universities currently, and 13 more are in the pipeline for the next academic year.

Kumar says businesses like his have come up because India’s education system undervalues teaching. “Teaching as a profession is not considered prestigious”, he says, and “therefore, the quality of teachers has dipped”. He says this is particularly true in cases like engineering.

Deepak Powdel, principal of Pune’s Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC), said the college has tied up with the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) to offer an online, two-credit course in the Indian knowledge system, titled ‘Introduction to the Vedas’.

“BORI is a renowned institute for the study of ancient India. When we have such a wealth of knowledge next door, why go elsewhere?” Powdel says. “They offer online courses on the Vedas. All our other courses are taught by our own faculty.”
Sandeep A Meshram, associate dean at the College of Engineering Pune Technological University, said the university has tied up with industry players and specialised institutes to offer students a range of multidisciplinary minor courses beyond its core engineering expertise.

“These are minor courses in other domains,” Meshram said. “We have partnered with FinIQ Consulting India for a course in quantitative finance, with Vizura AI Labs for artificial intelligence, and with Jnana Prabodhini’s Institute of Psychology for a minor in psychology. Faculty from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics also teach a course in economics.”

So, What’s The Future?

Many educators TOI spoke to for this story are certain that the trend of outsourcing the classroom will continue. Finding quality faculty is tough enough in traditional subjects, they say, but near-impossible in new areas where the scope of required knowledge expands every year.

But, they also say, universities will still be necessary, not just as the degreegiver but also as a gatekeeper when it comes to assessing the quality of teaching offered by outside partners. Also, students still want to go to a university, not to an edtech firm.

Universities will become increasingly flexible in their approach, more responsive to how technology and economic conditions are shaping student choices and needs. But will a more networked university still retain the character rooted in the emphasis it gave to sustained inquiry, thinking through difficult problems, the long mentorship between teachers and students?

That question will likely get answered over the next few years.