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India’s higher-education system had 64,756 institutions and 4.5 crore enrolled students in FY24, but a reported 34% of sanctioned teaching posts in centrally funded institutions were vacant. That vacancy figure covers a defined group of institutions—not every college or university in India—and is reported through Hindustan Times coverage of SBI Research’s September 2026 report, The State of Higher Education in India since 2014.
What the SBI report says about higher-education growth
Hindustan Times reports that the SBI Research report counted 64,756 higher-education institutions in FY24: 1,289 universities, 48,246 colleges and 15,221 standalone institutions. The same coverage puts student enrolment at 4.5 crore.
It also reports that the number of teachers rose from about 13.7 lakh in 2013–14 to 17.3 lakh in 2023–24. Those figures describe the overall teaching workforce, not the number of people appointed to every sanctioned post in centrally funded institutions. Hindustan Times’ coverage of the report
What the 34% vacancy rate measures
The 34% figure refers to 14,042 vacant teaching posts out of 41,351 sanctioned posts in centrally funded institutions. Hindustan Times says the figures come from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education and are cited in the SBI report. It is not a nationwide vacancy rate for all Indian higher-education institutions.
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A sanctioned post is an authorised position; a vacancy means it was unfilled in the cited data. The aggregate does not establish how long each post had been vacant, whether recruitment was underway, or whether staffing needs and hiring processes were the same across institution types. Hindustan Times’ coverage of the vacancy figures
Reported vacancies by institution category
Hindustan Times reports the following category-level vacancy rates. The underlying SBI report table was not available to verify its date, category definitions or methodology, so these figures should be treated as reported rates rather than a fully comparable ranking.
| Institution category | Reported vacancy rate |
|---|---|
| IIITs | 54% |
| Central universities | 39% |
| IIMs | 33% |
| NITs | 29% |
| IISERs | 7% |
Without the source table’s underlying counts, reference date and consistent definitions, the rates alone do not show how many positions are vacant in each category or establish why the rates differ.
Professor posts are a particular concern
The coverage gives a 56.2% vacancy rate for professor posts. This is a post-level figure reported through Hindustan Times; the accessible coverage does not establish a matching count of sanctioned professor positions or provide enough detail to extend the rate beyond its stated scope. Hindustan Times’ coverage of vacancy rates
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How to read the growth and vacancy figures together
- Expansion: Institutional totals and enrolment indicate the scale of the higher-education system in FY24.
- Workforce: The rise from about 13.7 lakh teachers in 2013–14 to 17.3 lakh in 2023–24 concerns the broader reported teaching workforce.
- Unfilled authorised posts: The 34% rate concerns sanctioned teaching posts in centrally funded institutions, a narrower population.
These measures can coexist: the overall number of teachers can increase while a defined group of institutions still has many sanctioned posts unfilled. The figures do not, by themselves, establish the causes of vacancies or quantify staffing across every institution.
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SBI’s official listing identifies The State of Higher Education in India since 2014 as a 30 September 2026 release. The figures and category rates above are attributed to Hindustan Times’ reporting of the report; the linked report PDF’s contents were not available for independent verification. SBI Research listing
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That limitation matters most for fine-grained comparisons: the available coverage does not establish the vacancy data’s precise cut-off date or provide the original category table and methodology. The reported aggregate supports a specific conclusion about centrally funded institutions, but not a universal claim about faculty vacancies across India’s entire higher-education system.
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