India’s new geography of learning is shifting beyond mega-cities

Higher education in India has long followed a predictable map. If one wanted a top-tier degree or serious career opportunities, one often had to move from smaller towns and cities to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, or Chennai. These mega-cities attracted much of the country’s academic talent, funding, and industry attention because major educational institutions were concentrated there.

However, a subtle transformation is unfolding across smaller towns and regional areas. Instead of relying on a single massive university isolated on the edge of a city, regional hubs are creating tightly connected academic networks that bring schools, technical institutes, national research laboratories, and local businesses into the same conversation. It is the beginning of a new model of education hubs.

This shift is visible across several corridors. The Chandigarh, Mohali, and Ropar region in North India is an example where institutes like Punjab University, PGIMER, IISER Mohali, and IIT Ropar are linked together through a common initiative called the Chandigarh Region Innovation & Knowledge Cluster (CRIKC). Dehradun, is yet another place in North, which is growing as an educational hub. The western region, on the other hand, is developing an educational system in the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad area, where institutes of technology, design, and management coexist alongside corporate and finance centers.

The development of these centers indicates that the creation of an educational system for the modern era does not involve merely the expansion of a single campus but requires density and connectivity, which help students transition from basic education to research and ultimately career opportunities.

What makes Goa interesting in India’s changing education scenario is not simply the presence of several prestigious institutions, but the beginnings of a connected education architecture running from school to advanced research. At the schoollevel, the Coding and Robotics Education in Schools (CARES) programme has taken coding and robotics beyond a handful of elite schools and more than 2,444 robotics kits have been distributed across all 442 government and aided schools covered by the programme, with over 12,000 students participating in its elective curriculum. The locally developed GoVIN platform is also available across these school computer laboratories. This creates an early technology and problem-solving layer before students ever step foot into higher education.

The next layer is an increasingly networked higher-education system. Goa University and its college educational system are being supplemented by specialized institutions such as IIT Goa, NIT Goa, BITS Pilani Goa, and Goa Institute of Management. Meanwhile, the state’s Directorate of Higher Education is attempting to connect institutions through multidisciplinary college clusters under NEP 2020, research clusters, NET/SET mentoring, and common digital infrastructure. DISHTAVO, for instance, provides around 21,000 recorded lectures across undergraduate programmes and has been integrated with the National Digital Library of India. This matters because an education hub is created not merely by putting institutions in the same geography, but by creating academic resources and structures that operate across individual campuses.

Around this mainstream university and college system sits an unusually diverse layer of specialized national capability. NIT Goa functions as an Institute of National Importance with undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes across engineering and applied sciences, while IIT Goa explicitly positions multidisciplinary education, research, and sustainable development among its core objectives. In healthcare, the All-India Institute of Ayurveda Goa combines higher education and advanced research with a 250-bed hospital. Goa also hosts national institutions in ocean and polar sciences, such as the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, as well as specialized training centers linked to tourism, maritime studies, and water sports. Meanwhile, the Goa Institute of Management has developed into a substantial management-education institution with six distinct programmes and an annual intake exceeding 900 students.

The more significant development, however, is the state’s attempt to move from pure teaching to structured knowledge creation. Goa has established the Goa State Research Foundation as a dedicated research-financing institution, while the higher-education department has created research clusters in government and aided colleges. In parallel, the state has actively sought the expertise of IIT Goa, NIT Goa, and BITS Pilani in implementing core elements of the National Education Policy, linking nationally significant institutions directly with the wider state education system rather than allowing them to function only as isolated campuses.

Underscoring this institutional collaboration during the Goa Shiksha Samagam at Lok Bhawan at Dona Paula in July this year, Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant highlighted that the state sought the direct expertise of premier bodies like IIT, NIT, and BITS Pilani precisely to anchor the National Education Policy in practical skill-building and real-world outcomes. Emphasizing that education must extend far beyond textbook instruction and mere degrees, Sawant stated, “If you want to succeed in life, education must also include life skills so that students can decide their future,” adding that early career guidance, critical thinking, and technological empowerment must begin right from the school stage.

Seen together, the emerging model in Goa is broader than a collection of colleges, school-level technology exposure feeds into a widely accessible higher-education network; common digital infrastructure connects institutions; specialist national institutes add depth in technology, health, management, and research; and state-backed mechanisms are beginning to bridge education with research and skills. Goa still has to demonstrate how effectively this architecture translates into stronger learning outcomes, applied research, and high-value employment. However, it is precisely this movement from isolated institutions towards a continuous school-to-higher-education-to-research ecosystem that makes Goa a credible example of India’s emerging education hubs.

Its case rests not on metropolitan scale or sprawling landmass, but on institutional diversity, connectivity, and knowledge density within a compact geography. As India increasingly relies on knowledge-intensive industries, there is no longer a need for large, sprawling megacities to hold a monopoly on quality educational infrastructure. Networks that seamlessly connect the classroom with university-level research are compact and efficient, and they offer a template that can be replicated across regions throughout the nation.

(Himanshu Roy is Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.)