Recruiting in India

More than half of the 1.2 billion people living in India are younger than 25 years old. The nation has a growing middle class with increasing spending power. And there are far more high school students seeking college spots than there are Indian universities to accommodate them.

All of this has made the United States among the most important recruitment markets for India’s undergraduate and graduate students.

But recruiting those students today is different than it was a decade ago: There is more of a focus on undergraduate applications; on promoting the flexibility of the U.S. higher education experience; on using indigenous recruiters who know the country and language, and can help with visa and travel requirements; and on increasing scholarships and financial aid to lure India’s best and brightest.

“India has always been, and will continue to be, a leading source of international students aspiring to study abroad because of India’s gap between supply and demand for quality education, its caste-based admissions system, its outdated and rigid curricula, and the lack of employability for students on graduation,” said Mallik R. Sundharam, director of recruitment and partner support in the Chennai offices of ELS Educational Services Inc.

Demand Outstrips Supply

In January 2016, the Hindustan Times reported that more than 80 percent of engineering students graduating from Indian universities could not find work in their home country. Why not? Because there is a glut of bright, well-educated students coming out of Indian universities every year, but not enough jobs to