In India, Engineering Success

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

In India, engineering success now comes from private schooling:

In 2005 India produced 200,000 engineering graduates, about three times as many as the United States and twice as many as all of Europe. But the really astonishing statistic is this: In 2005 India enrolled fully 450,000 students in four-year engineering courses, meaning that its output of engineers will more than double by 2009.

As striking as these numbers is the way India is getting there. What’s made this engineering takeoff possible is not an increase in the supply of universities financed by taxpayers or foreign donors; it’s an increase in demand for education from fee-paying students — a demand to which entrepreneurs naturally respond. More than four out of five Indian engineering students attend private colleges, whose potential growth seems limitless.

(Hat tip to Alex Tabarrok.)

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