Online higher education enrolment to reach 63.63 lakh by 2022: Report

New Delhi: People registering for higher education online is expected to grow at 14.5 per cent and will reach 63.63 lakh by 2022, says a report.

According to a report from Schoolguru Eduserve (a TeamLease group company), the UGC regulations for online programmes allowing Universities in India to offer online degree programmes and the government's impetus on improving gross enrolment ratio (GER) will boost the industry.

The enrolment in online degree or diploma programmes will witness a 14.5 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and will reach 63.63 lakh by 2022. As per the report, the enrolment growth that India will witness in the near future would be somewhere close to that of the United States of America and Europe.

During the academic year 2015-17, the online higher education enrolment in the US and Europe were 16 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. The report further noted that the total enrolment in online education is estimated at 33.6 per cent CAGR and cross 2.12 crore by 2022. The online re-skilling and certification market is expected to touch at Rs 3,333 crore by 2022.

"Online learning can provide a potent alternative for the massification of higher education thereby helping the country improve its GER rates from the current 25 per cent to the targeted 30 per cent," Shantanu Rooj, CEO and Founder, Schoolguru Eduserve said. From a programme perspective, associate and bachelors' degrees are the most preferred programmes. In fact, more than two-third of the students in India prefer to pursue an associate or a bachelors' degree.

According to the report, some of the hindrances that the online education sector is facing are unavailability of qualified online instructors, inadequate student-faculty interactions, duration of the course, lengthy enrolment procedure and high fees.