These online degrees are designed in high-demand areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science, and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.
They also offer bachelor's and master's degrees in fields such as commerce and the arts.
Edtech upskilling companies such as PhysicsWallah and Simplilearn have launched a pilot in this segment or are planning to do so in the coming fiscal, while existing players are strengthening their offerings.
Physics Wallah Pvt. Ltd's PW Skills, which initially introduced PW Institute of Innovation (PW IOI), a four-year residential program in computer science, has now started rolling out programs in collaboration with colleges such as IIT Sirmaur and Patna, and other universities such as Lovely Professional University, Jain University and Manipal University.
Although the company's official website shows that these courses are open for admission, PhysicsWallah declined to comment on the subject.
Simplilearn, on the other hand, has put together a team to forge new relationships with universities in India and abroad to offer long-term online courses.
The company, which only offers certification programs and short-term courses, plans to offer online degrees in 2025, with a focus on the Indian market.
“In our country, we don't have enough universities to serve our entire population. In most countries, including the US, there are hundreds of online universities that don't have a physical campus. In the long run, it makes sense: and we see the market that direction,” says Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of Simplilearn Mint.
They are not alone.
Growth highway
Founded in 2015, UpGrad pioneered some of India's first co-branded blended programs in 2020 through partnerships with OP Jindal Global University and Jamia Hamdard. This came shortly after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allowed India's top 100 universities to offer fully online courses to ensure continued education during the lockdown.
According to Mayank Kumar, co-founder of upskilling unicorn upGrad, such co-branded degrees now account for almost half of the company's student enrollments. He added that the degree product line is growing faster than the certification business the company initially started with.
“We enroll about 150,000 students annually, of which 60,000 to 70,000 are online enrollments, and that segment is growing rapidly – about 30-50% year-on-year, even at this scale,” Kumar shared. Mint.
Further training delay
Globally, demand for upskilling is often countercyclical, as more and more workers seek it during economic recessions. In India, however, this pattern is reversed.
There has been a slowdown in upskilling growth in India due to weak hiring trends, limited opportunities for high-paying jobs and the industry's widespread approach to cutting marketing spend to prioritize the profitability.
According to an August Bank of Baroda report, corporate employment growth slowed from 5.7% in 2022-2024 to 1.5% in 2023-2024.
According to the report, only 90,840 new jobs were created in the financial year, a significant drop from 333,000 in the previous financial year.
In an interview last week, Great Learning founder Mohan Lakhamraju said Mint that the company expects flat demand for professional learning courses in India by 2024-2025.
Lakhamraju's Great Learning, which offers online degrees in partnership with Deakin University and Northernwestern School of Professional Studies, is also doubling down on its partnerships with other renowned institutions such as Johns Hopkins, Duke University and IIT Bombay to explore future programs and degrees.
He added that the biggest challenge in offering degrees in partnership with reputed colleges is that they can be expensive.
Costs for co-branded degrees offered by PhysicsWallah, upGrad and Eruditus vary significantly depending on course type, duration and partner institutions. According to their websites, PhysicsWallah charges between ₹40,000 and ₹1.5 lakh, Eruditus charges can go up to ₹9 lakh, while the cost of upGrad can go up to as much as ₹25 lakhs.
PhysicsWallah's M.Sc. in Data Science at Chandigarh University offers 24 months of live classes and on-campus immersion ₹90,000. Meanwhile, upGrad's Doctor of Business Administration from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, is a 36-month program that ₹25,00,000. All of these companies offer flexible payment options, such as monthly installments for students.
“Affordability in India is not that high, which is a huge limitation. However, interest is enormous if you can offer programs at an affordable price. What I spend most of my time on is figuring out how to bring the price down,” said Lakhamraju.
Great Learning also seeks to link online degrees from international universities with foreign programs to make such courses more attractive to students.
“Of course we have to make sure it works for the universities too,” he added.
Edtech meets academia
Universities in India are often cash-strapped, looking for additional revenue streams and slow to adopt new technologies, while edtech platforms focus on industry-aligned skills. Meanwhile, students are looking for job-relevant skills but are still demanding a formal degree, says Suchindra Kumar, partner and sector expert for education at PwC. Mint.
Online degrees create a symbiotic relationship, with universities partnering with edtech platforms to offer industry-tailored content in addition to formal degrees, boosting revenues for both, he added.
According to Narayanan Ramaswamy, partner and head of the Education and Skill Development Practice at KPMG in India, collaboration with existing universities gives these e-learning providers a certain status in the formal education sector.
“I also expect that these e-learning providers will have alliances and in some cases even acquisitions. They also need to ensure that the students can play a bigger game and continue with their higher studies beyond the direct online course,” he added. .
Job guarantee takes a back seat
The sluggish labor market has impacted growing demand for job guarantee programs for upskilling, driven by the initial appeal of high-paying positions in 2021.
UpGrad's Kumar believes that companies that focus solely on job placement will eventually have to expand into offering degrees, as scaling purely through employment is difficult without direct control over employment.
In June, Mint reported that Simplilearn, which previously offered job guarantee programs, halted the initiative after enrolling 900 students but only placing 271 due to a weakening labor market.
In April, India Quotient-backed pay-on-placement startup Masai School achieved cash positivity after adding IIT courses. According to news reports, the company wanted to increase revenues from this segment by almost half in the coming years.
