Higher education is increasingly coming under pressure to rethink what it is preparing students for, and how. In India, that question matters even more because secondary education is no longer one uniform story. There are now two very distinct worlds. In one, applied exposure, experimentation, and early career imagination are starting to come in, whether inside schools or through parallel avenues outside them. In the other, students remain in a system that is still centred around preparing for exams that are themselves not fully competency-based, let alone aligned with the real world and workplaces of the future. Even the conditions for applied exposure remain uneven. Official UDISE+ data for 2024-25 shows that only 63.5% of schools had Internet access.

What is interesting is that the higher education landscape is not adequately prepared for either cohort. First, the return to passive note-taking and rigid academic structures can feel like an immediate disconnect. Second, the gap they already face in relation to the workplace often becomes even more pronounced during undergraduate study.

Visible pathways

Coming back to the first cohort, by Class 11 or 12, many have already built prototypes, entered innovation challenges or written basic code. They may not yet be experts, but they are no longer passive recipients of theory. They expect to understand how concepts connect to real-world problems. This shift matters deeply because secondary school is where career aspirations begin to take shape.

Universities are meant to be the bridge between early exposure and long-term career clarity. But that bridge is uneven right now. India’s higher education system largely continues to operate on a lecture-and-exam model. While foundational concepts are essential, the key issue lies in sequencing and pedagogy. As secondary schools start trying to introduce applied learning early, universities must build upward from that base, not restart at zero.

While some IITs are experimenting with project-based structures and a few private universities have redesigned the first-year experience around interdisciplinary problem-solving, across India’s 1,100-plus universities and 43,000 colleges, change remains insufficient. For either cohort, universities cannot afford to postpone career conversations until placement season. Students now encounter emerging fields before they choose undergraduate streams. For the ones with early exposure, delay can mean losing momentum. Those without it lose valuable time to build awareness, confidence, and direction.

Universities need to make pathways visible much earlier. Diagnostic assessments can help understand prior exposure and identify where students are starting from. Structured mentoring can begin in the first year. Modular specialisation tracks can provide direction without forcing premature choices. Industry-linked projects from the second year can help students connect learning with possible roles and sectors. Career clarity should evolve continuously in ways that respond to different types of starting points.

Change assessments

Secondary and senior secondary STEM programmes increasingly use project submissions, portfolios, peer review and prototype evaluation. Even Board exams are starting to rethink methods of evaluation and how to become more ‘competency-based’. Yet many universities still rely almost entirely on three-hour written examinations.

Higher education needs to urgently adopt competency-based assessments, capstone projects evaluated by external experts, and portfolio-driven evaluation, at scale. These approaches are particularly important in higher education, which is closest to the workplace.

The faculty question

At the heart of this transition is teacher capability. For example, secondary reforms require significant teacher upskilling in experiential pedagogy, competency-based assessments, and mentoring innovation projects. Higher education faces a similar challenge. With an estimated 35-40% vacancy rate in public university faculty positions and many existing faculty trained in traditional lecture models, the system needs structured support. If applied curricula are introduced but delivered through old pedagogies, the promise will weaken.

Professional development for university faculty in project facilitation, interdisciplinary design, industry collaboration, and modern assessment is essential. Without it, even well-designed reforms will struggle in implementation.

Both secondary and higher education remain uneven in quality, access, and relevance, even as important reforms and pockets of innovation emerge within each. This accentuates the problem of continuity. Students enter undergraduate education from very different starting points, but higher education often responds as if they are all beginning from the same place. That weakens the bridge between school, deeper learning, and the workplace. If India wants early exposure and aspiration to translate into meaningful capability and career direction, the undergraduate continuum needs much more deliberate attention.

The writer is the founder and CEO of Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA).