The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released its Global Education Monitoring Report 2026, ranking India among the top 5 countries worldwide for growth in higher education gross enrollment ratio (GER). India’s GER has risen from 27.4% (2021) to 34.2% (2026).
The report highlights India’s NEP 2020 as a model policy for developing countries, particularly praising the multidisciplinary approach, vocational education integration, and the use of mother-tongue as medium of instruction in early education.
India’s publicly funded higher education system, which includes 45 central universities, 400+ state universities, 23 IITs, 31 NITs, and 7,000+ government colleges, is recognized as one of the world’s largest systems providing accessible education.
However, the UNESCO report also flags concerns about quality disparities between urban and rural institutions, low female enrollment in STEM fields (34%), and inadequate research funding as a percentage of GDP (0.7% vs 2-3% in developed nations).
The report recommends that India increase public spending on higher education from current 1.1% of GDP to 2% to match global benchmarks and sustain its growth trajectory in the next decade.
