India's Campus Debt Crisis: Degrees Leave Students Broke

In India, education hubs like Knowledge Park 3 were built on the promise of upward mobility through degrees. However, for approximately 100,000 students, this often translates to debt and disappointment. Families are draining savings for private colleges, which have proliferated across areas like Noida.

The expansion of private higher education has dramatically outpaced job creation. Since 2014, the number of private colleges has tripled, with over two-thirds of India's 45 million higher education students now attending them. This surge has resulted in nearly 40% of graduates under 25 being unemployed.

Experts estimate that 400,000 students annually spend over $20,000 on private engineering degrees, with median salaries around $3,000. This situation has fueled widespread anxiety among young Indians, contributing to recent protests that widened from exam rigging concerns to broader frustrations about career obstacles.

Many students, like Harshit Rai and Atul Anand, are taking on substantial loans, some exceeding $7,000 and $4,000 respectively, with interest rates around 10%. They worry about repayment, as their aspirations for high salaries are tempered by the reality of securing jobs that would take years to recoup their educational costs.