Vocational education requires sustained investment, stronger industry collaboration, and greater public awareness before it can compete on equal terms with regular degrees.
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On the one hand, India wants to become the world’s skilling capital. On the other, some of its universities are moving in the opposite direction. On July 6, 2026, the Delhi edition of The Indian Express reported that Delhi University has proposed discontinuing six undergraduate vocational programmes and replacing them with interdisciplinary B.A. combinations such as Commerce with Economics or Hindi with Political Science. According to the report, the reason given by the university was that the move aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and its emphasis on interdisciplinary, skill-oriented education.The immediate trigger for the decision appears to be low enrolment. After Delhi University introduced its Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) in 2022, a committee was constituted to examine programmes that consistently attracted few applicants. The report also noted that faculty members have argued that the committee has moved well beyond its original mandate. Instead of examining admissions, it is influencing decisions on academic programmes that, under university regulations, belong to statutory academic bodies such as the Academic Council.The larger concern is that a mechanism designed to allocate seats is beginning to shape academic policy. Once that logic takes hold, programmes are evaluated primarily by the number of applicants they attract rather than by their academic value, industry relevance, or long-term contribution to the workforce. That is a dangerous shift because admission preferences do not necessarily reflect labour-market needs. They often reflect familiarity, social perception, and parental advice.Across India, year after year, students overwhelmingly choose conventional degrees such as Commerce, B.Com (Hons.), English, Political Science, History, and Economics that are perceived as safe, flexible, and socially acceptable. Vocational programmes, by contrast, are newer, more specialised, and less understood. They naturally attract fewer applicants, especially when schools, parents, and career counsellors know little about the opportunities they offer.If universities begin to equate low demand with low value, the consequences will extend far beyond a handful of courses. Institutions across the country may increasingly discontinue specialised programmes simply because they do not fill seats immediately. New vocational degrees, which require time to establish credibility, will find it difficult to survive. Universities will become more cautious about introducing innovative programmes if enrolment numbers become the primary measure of success. The result will be a system that rewards familiarity instead of responding to changing economic needs. Instead of creating a wider range of educational pathways, higher education could gradually narrow itself to a small group of traditional degrees because they are easier to fill.This runs contrary to India’s own policy priorities. Graduate employability continues to be a major concern. Governments have invested heavily in skilling initiatives, apprenticeship programmes, and industry partnerships. The NEP repeatedly stresses the need to integrate vocational education into mainstream higher education and reduce the divide between academic and skill-based learning. Vocational degrees were introduced to create direct links between classrooms and workplaces. Closing them because they currently attract fewer students is not a skilling reform but a weakening of the very ecosystem that national policy seeks to build. General degrees have enjoyed decades of social acceptance. Vocational education is still evolving. It requires sustained investment, stronger industry collaboration, and greater public awareness before it can compete on equal terms.The argument that universities are merely responding to student preference misses the larger responsibility of higher education. Universities should certainly listen to students. But they also have a duty to guide informed choices. Most 18-year-olds select courses with limited knowledge of employment trends or future skill requirements. Institutions exist not merely to reflect those preferences but also to shape them through information, counselling, and engagement with industry.This is not an argument for retaining every under-enrolled programme indefinitely. Some courses do require restructuring or even closure. But there is an important difference between reforming a programme and abandoning it. Universities can revise curricula, strengthen industry partnerships, expand internships, improve placement support, and communicate career opportunities more effectively. They can evaluate whether weak enrolment stems from poor programme design or simply poor visibility. Before concluding that vocational education has failed, institutions must first demonstrate that they made a serious effort to make it succeed.If India is serious about building a skilled workforce, vocational education cannot be judged solely by its popularity at the point of admission. The real test is whether universities have invested enough to make these programmes relevant, credible, and attractive.The writer is former professor and dean, Christ University, Bengaluru. Published - July 20, 2026 08:44 am IST
