Aug 12, 2026 16:11 pm IST

Opinion | The Great IIT Dream Is Cracking: Why Even Top Degree-Holders Are Unable To Find Jobs

Across several top IITs, roughly 30-40% of registered students had not found jobs by the final weeks of the 2024-25 cycle.

Deepanshu Mohan, Srisoniya Subramoniam Deepanshu Mohan Columnist Srisoniya Subramoniam Columnist

Deepanshu Mohan Columnist

Srisoniya Subramoniam Columnist

A few weeks ago, a 22-year-old growth marketer who dropped out of his engineering programme went viral on X for claiming he now earns nearly ₹4.86 lakh a month, arguing that an IIT degree is "just a tag".

The post reignited a debate that has been simmering in Indian classrooms and comment sections alike: is a degree - even one from the country's most coveted institutions - still a launchpad, or has it become a legacy people cling to out of habit? While Gen Z's aspirations around work are shifting faster than the job market can keep up with, most discussions tend to look at the employment side of the equation - that is, what happens after the degree.

The more uncomfortable question sits one step earlier: what is actually happening with higher education that seems to be setting so many young people up for disappointment.

Meet Lavanya Jain, who dropped out from his https://t.co/Ws1j7hoGgc final year at JIIT Noida. He says it was the best decision of his life. This 22-year-old now earns ₹4.8 lakhs per month, which is more than his college placement. 🔥He says he is not from an IIT and even… pic.twitter.com/gpKcA7KnZp— Vikas Alwys (@VikasAlwys) August 3, 2026

Meet Lavanya Jain, who dropped out from his https://t.co/Ws1j7hoGgc final year at JIIT Noida. He says it was the best decision of his life. This 22-year-old now earns ₹4.8 lakhs per month, which is more than his college placement. 🔥He says he is not from an IIT and even… pic.twitter.com/gpKcA7KnZp

The Expansion Paradox

India's higher education structure has grown at a tremendous pace, which would have seemed quite unimaginable a generation ago. According to the AISHE 2021-22 survey of the Ministry of Education, the total enrolment touched approximately 4.33 crore students in 2021-22, up from a mere 3.42 crore in 2014-15.

A jump of about 91 lakh within a decade. Additionally, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) - which measures the share of the........

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