New Delhi, February 5 (IANS). India is likely to add about 30,000 acres of new campus land and about 2.7 billion square feet of educational infrastructure by 2035 to meet the rapidly growing demand of students. This could make India one of the world’s largest institutional real estate opportunities over the next decade. This information was given in a report released on Thursday.
According to an Anarock Capital report, around 2.5 crore additional seats will be required to achieve the target of increasing the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) to 50 per cent by 2035 under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. This will require an investment of about $100 billion in the construction of educational campuses alone, which does not include land acquisition and student housing infrastructure.
“Powered by demographic momentum, growing enrolment, globalization of education and historic regulatory reforms, this expansion could result in one of the largest creation markets for higher education globally,” the report said.
The real estate services company said enrollment in higher education in India is set to increase from 2.7 crore in 2010-11 to 4.5 crore in 2022-23. Over the same period, the number of universities increased from 760 in 2015 to 1,338 in 2025, while the total number of higher education institutions increased from 51,534 to 70,018.
“The provision to support the construction of five university townships in the Union Budget 2026 signals the government’s acknowledgment of the gap that exists in educational infrastructure,” said Shobhit Agarwal, CEO, Anarock Capital.
Ashish Aggarwal, Senior Vice President (Investment Advisory), Anarock Capital, said that after the FHEI rules, now foreign higher education institutions included in the top-500 in the global ranking can directly set up their campuses in India without being affiliated with Indian universities.
He said that apart from the three global university campuses that have already opened, 13 other foreign institutions have announced to open their campuses in India. These include institutions like Lancaster (UK), Liverpool (UK), Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) and Instituto Europeo di Design (Italy), which reflects the international confidence in India’s education market.
According to the report, Uttar Pradesh has implemented stamp duty exemption and capital subsidy for higher education institutions. A special international campus framework with shared academic infrastructure has been created in GIFT City, Gujarat.
Maharashtra has made the ‘Edu-City’ proposed on 250 acres near Navi Mumbai International Airport the centerpiece of its strategy, where commitments have been secured from five foreign higher education institutions.
–IANS
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