the higher ed notebook

Notes on Higher Education.

Essays on business models, pricing, credentials, and institutional strategy in higher education. An organised view of accumulated notes over the years on higherEd.

  2. August 2026 · higher education, india, global capability centres, labor economics, edtech

    The New Buyers of Indian Talent

    Global Capability Centres are replacing mass IT recruiters in India, offering higher wages for top talent while forcing corporate balance sheets to fund real education.

  3. August 2026 · higher education, india, apprenticeships, edtech, economics

    The Earn While Learn Degree

    I explain how combining credit banking, corporate stipends, and apprenticeships can eliminate Indian student debt while solving graduate unemployability.

  5. July 2026 · business models, pricing

    The Tuition Trap

    Most colleges have exactly one revenue lever, and they have already pulled it as hard as it goes.

  6. July 2026 · higher education, india, skilling, edtech, real estate

    The Rise of District Learning Centres

    I examine how repurposed legacy colleges are becoming physical nodes for proctoring, mentorship, and skilling, bridging the gap between digital scale and local trust.

  7. July 2026 · education, technology, skilling, india, future of work

    The Verified Skill Graph

    I argue that replacing course titles with evidence-linked skill graphs will reshape how Indian degrees are built, trusted, and valued by employers.

  8. July 2026 · higher education, india, education policy, institutional exit

    An Exit Framework for Indian Higher Education

    I argue that India needs an orderly institutional exit framework to eliminate zombie colleges and protect vulnerable students from a brutal market sorting.

  9. July 2026 · higher education, india, universities, strategy

    The Strategic Case for Niche Universities

    I argue that focused universities outperform sprawling multiversities by offering students cohort density, employers clean signals, and industries a true talent commons.

  10. July 2026 · higher education, edtech, india, digital university, future of work

    The Rise of the Digital Open University

    India's online degree regulations and edtech platforms are converging to build campusless, outcome-focused digital universities that scale quality education beyond physical walls.

  11. July 2026 · higher education, india, skills, policy

    The Single Currency for Indian Skills

    I argue that the National Credit Framework turns vocational skills into academic currency, unlocking employer-funded degrees at nationwide scale.

  12. July 2026 · higher education, digital university, india, swayam, edtech

    The Empty Digital University

    I examine how the state built the infrastructure for a national digital university but failed to operate it, allowing private insurgents to capture the format.

  13. July 2026 · higher education, india, policy, universities

    Ending the Affiliated College System in India

    I explain why phasing out India's legacy affiliated college system will shrink institutional bloat and rebuild state public universities.

  14. July 2026 · education, economics, india, policy, business

    The Foreign University Arbitrage in Indian Education

    I explain how foreign campus regulations created a public-private partnership loop that allows private capital to run for-profit higher education in India.

  15. June 2026 · higher education, india, education policy, nep 2020, universities

    The End of the Affiliated College

    India is phasing out affiliated colleges by 2035, forcing thousands of low-quality campuses to merge, grow autonomous, or shut down entirely.

  16. June 2026 · higher education, india, edtech, iit, innovation

    How IIT Madras Rewrote Higher Education

    I explain how the IIT Madras BS program shattered India's elite gatekeeping, solved distance education's status problem, and built a scalable blueprint for modular degrees.

  17. June 2026 · higher education, india policy, demographics, ger-50

    The Impossible Arithmetic of GER-50

    India's target of adding forty million higher education seats faces demographic plateaus, fiscal limits, and broken delivery formats that require a complete rewrite of institutional models.

  18. June 2026 · higher education, iit madras, india, edtech

    How Status Broke the University Gate

    I examine how the IIT Madras online degree solved higher education's esteem problem and enabled Indian students to quietly construct their own modular degrees.

  19. June 2026 · higher education, india, china, public policy

    How China Built World Class Universities

    I examine how China built world-class universities by concentrating capital into a tiny cluster of flagships, offering a sharp lesson for India's diluted higher education policy.

  20. June 2026 · education, economics, india, finance

    The Household Finance Engine of Indian Education

    I examine how Indian higher education shifted its financial burden onto households and leverage, leaving parents to fund a system in which they hold zero power.

  21. June 2026 · credentials, strategy

    Unbundling the Degree

    A degree is four products sold as one. Only one of them is actually hard to replicate.

  22. June 2026 · higher education, edtech, india, future of work

    Proof of Work in Higher Education

    As traditional Indian degrees lose their market value, alt schools are replacing state-sanctioned credentials with verified placement outcomes.

  23. June 2026 · education, higher education, india, edtech, policy

    A Modular Blueprint for Indian Higher Education

    I propose a 50-30-20 modular degree architecture that turns Indian higher education into a flexible, technology-enabled, lifelong system.

  25. March 2026 · playbook, partnerships

    The OPM Bargain

    Renting someone else's growth engine works right up until you need it back.