The TeamLease India Labour Report 2012 suggests the country is in a ‘higher education emergency' situation.
The reasons for this are challenges of enrolment, physical access and employability.
The study says the country's higher education enrolment ratio is 11 per cent, which half of the world average and way behind that of developed countries (54 per cent).
The report highlights three banes plaguing the higher education scene: not enough children go to college, not enough children have physical access to college and many colleges give degrees but don't lead to jobs.
The study titled, ‘Massifying Indian Higher Education: The Access and Employability Case for Community Colleges' argues for solutions that would combine the needs of policy makers, employers and the youth.
“Community colleges could be an important innovation because they are part ITI, part-college and part-employment exchange,” says Mr Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services.
Enrolment in higher education is about 1.6 crore in 2012. The community college offering two year programmes could increase enrolment by 8 million from small towns, unorganised workers and the traditionally disadvantaged, Mr Sabharwal said.