Urgent employability demands push priorities for IBCs in India

At a panel titled From Classroom to Corporate: Building the Global Graduate, organised by Austrade, leaders from international universities highlighted efforts to strengthen student employability, while noting the complexity of managing high student expectations and keeping programs in business, finance, and IT up to date at their campuses in India.

According to Ravneet Pawha, vice-president (global engagement) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, the first Australian university to open a branch campus in India at GIFT City, its postgraduate programs in cyber security and business analytics maintain high-quality cohorts to ensure strong job outcomes – while continuing to address any potential market mismatches in industry-designed skillsets.

“Currently, around 50-60% of our students have secured jobs, while the rest are completing internships and work-integrated learning. Some gaps remain, because industry sometimes seeks beyond skills integrated in the curriculum, and students’ expectations can sometimes mismatch what the industry can offer. We work actively to resolve mismatches, align industry expectations and best practices and bring everything together for our students,” stated Pawha.

“We have the benefit of GIFT City and its ecosystem, but are still bringing all the pieces together because we are the first, and there isn’t an established model of success as we go while building the ecosystem.”

Since starting in 1994 with just a handful of students from India, Deakin’s India strategy now accounts for over 50% of its international activity, with 118 research projects, joint academies with IIT Madras and IIT Hyderabad offering PhDs, more than 30,000 alumni, and active contributions to the country’s upskilling landscape.

While the institution has partnered with organisations like IBM, NAB’s India Innovation Centre, and NSDC International, and lined up 50 companies for placements at its GIFT City campus ahead of its inaugural graduation, aligning the right staff and blending teaching cultures to meet India’s employability needs has been a careful process.

“Indian students are used to a very different style of teaching in India, and we at Deakin also teach differently. Merging these approaches has been a gradual process with successful outcomes,” stated Pawha.

“It’s important for Indian and global industry in India to understand that the job opportunities we have in Australia are very different from those in India. The question then becomes: how do you make sure that the courses you are teaching will actually lead to job offers for students in India? For us, it’s a running model with learning at each step and huge potential to grow and deliver.”

With Indian universities emphasising that employability outcomes remain central to sustaining student interest, newer branch campuses like University of Southampton Delhi aim to ensure students in India undergo a one-week employability induction and participate in career advancement initiatives.

“[Students] go through our Successful Futures program in Southampton, exactly the same as UK and Malaysia students, where they have access to a portal to build their CVs, improve their soft skills, and get assistance with interview skills and things like that,” stated Eloise Phillips, academic provost, Southampton Delhi and the institution’s AVP for International.

For University of Southampton’s Delhi campus, which opened in August last year with 120 students and aims to grow to 5,500, operating as a UK degree-granting campus has required some adjustments in India’s placement ecosystem.

“Student expectations can sometimes be very high, so we’ve introduced additional careers counselling and preparation sessions, bringing in external companies and consultants to support communication and other soft skills,” stated Phillips.

Because students follow UK academic timelines, their placement cycles differ from those of many Indian universities, though employers have been “flexible and adaptable” and keen to work with them, according to Phillips.

The university is also encouraging students to engage more closely with career initiatives, as recent reports suggest Indian employers are increasingly prioritising soft skills such as critical thinking, communication and learning agility.

“At times, students may not fully engage with these sessions, and then feel they haven’t had enough time to prepare when employers visit campus. Helping students understand this process has been a key focus for us.”

We’ve had instances where we’ve gone back to universities and asked if we can work together to help shape the curriculum, particularly in the final six monthsAnupama Sachdeva, Concentrix

As employers in India increasingly prioritise soft skills, many are also turning to IBCs to help shape curriculum, a recent example being companies like Godrej Group, Tata Group and Reliance Industries contributing to the design of AI, data science and business programs at Illinois Tech’s Mumbai campus.

“We’ve had instances where we’ve gone back to universities and asked if we can work together to help shape the curriculum, particularly in the final six months, so that graduates are better aligned with industry needs,” stated Anupama Sachdeva, vice president for human resources, Concentrix, an IT services firm.

“Students who gain practical experience at regular intervals during their studies are often better prepared because they go through the cycle of learning, applying and course-correcting.”

According to Sachdeva, even in fields like cybersecurity, what universities teach and the skills employers seek can sometimes have only a “50-50 or 75-25 match”, with cross-cultural skills and exposure to pathway programs becoming increasingly important when hiring graduates today.

“When we evaluate talent, we ask whether universities are teaching the right things and whether students are gaining hands-on and cross-cultural experience,” stated Sachdeva.

“When we see a CV that includes exposure to more than one university or country, it often shows that the individual has experienced different ways of learning and different cultural perspectives.”

With India anticipating a major AI boom, with investments expected to reach around USD$200 billion, its impact on the country’s 1.4 billion-strong market is likely to be significant.

However, the labour market already faces structural challenges. While India’s employment numbers rose to around 574 million in October-December 2025 from 562 million previously, less than half of young Indians are considered employable, with sharp gender and geographic disparities, according to a study.

“India is a very competitive market, so students need to recognise that they are competing with many others,” added Pawha.