A recent Harvard study has found that 10 college degrees—including once-prestigious ones such as business administration, computer science, and economics—are rapidly losing their value in the job market. The finding only confirms what students and employers worldwide have sensed for some time: the college degree is no longer the reliable passport to prosperity.
For decades, it was indeed the surest ticket to social mobility. Everyone staunchly believed that it promised stability, respectability, and offered a dependable route to success. To hold a degree was like holding the future in one’s hands. However, today, that promise is wearing out—both globally and in India. Due to artificial intelligence and the rapid pace of technological change bringing in automation, the relationship between education and opportunity is being redefined.
Two economists from Harvard, David J Deming and Kadeem Noray, warned us of this in as early as 2020. Their research showed that graduates, especially in technology-intensive fields such as computer science and engineering, could reap high early-career returns. However, these returns may fade sharply over time as their skills become less relevant. In effect, the ‘earnings premium’ that once made such degrees so desirable gradually begins to shrink within a decade of graduation. Thus what was once an appreciating asset becomes a depreciating one. Without continuous upskilling, the degree itself starts to lose value over time, often from the very day it is earned.
This story is seen in many disciplines including business education. Surely, none would dispute that the MBA, once a crown jewel of middle-class aspiration, no longer carries the same magic. Recruiters today look less for credentials and more for competence. The Harvard Business School’s 2022 study referred to this as the ‘degree reset’: employers are increasingly setting aside traditional degree requirements and focusing instead on demonstrable skills. Even graduates from the world’s top institutions are finding that jobs take longer to secure and salaries are not what they once were.
The humanities, too, are in retreat. Philosophy, literature, history, and sociology are losing students at a pace that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago. Since 2013, The Harvard Crimson has tracked a steady decline in humanities enrolments; the pattern is also visible in India. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, undergraduate enrolment in arts, humanities, and social sciences has been edging down—from 35.9 percent in 2018-19, it has come down to 34.2 percent in 2021-22. What once represented intellectual exploration now feels like a risk.
This decline is reflective of a deeper systemic inertia. Our universities continue to behave as if the learning acquired in one’s twenties could fuel an entire lifetime. Syllabuses are still rigid, faculty incentives rarely reward curricular innovation, and success is narrowly measured by placement statistics rather than long-term employability or wage growth. The result is an educational model that prizes the attainment of a degree but neglects the cultivation of lifelong learning.
It’s time we understood that a degree today is not an endpoint, but a start. It may open a door, but does not guarantee the journey beyond. The graduates who thrive are not those with the most impressive certificates but those with the agility to learn, unlearn, and relearn. In a sense, the market is rediscovering an old humanistic truth: education is not a one-time achievement, but a continuous act of renewal. The only change is that the economy now demands this not as an ideal, but as a survival skill.
Naturally, this calls for a radical rethink of India’s higher education system. We can no longer afford to see learning as a front-loaded investment. The system must evolve into what can be called a ‘lifelong learning economy’. Universities should embed micro-credentials, modular certifications, and industry-linked short courses into their degree structures. This would enable students and professionals to build skills iteratively, continually updating their learning portfolios as technology and markets evolve. Policy, too, must change how it measures success.
Currently, institutions are evaluated based on placements. That metric is short-sighted. The real question is whether those graduates can stay employable 10 years down the line. Are they earning more, adapting better and continuing to learn? Indicators such as mid-career wage resilience, alumni retraining, and skill relevance would tell a more honest story of institutional performance.
Equally, the state must recognise that reskilling is not a private luxury but a public necessity. Subsidised platforms for professional learning, open access to industry-certified courses, and credit frameworks that allow working adults to return to study should all form part of the national education policy. In a world where AI can upend entire sectors within a few business cycles, adaptability is both a career asset and a civic virtue.
What’s at stake is not just the fate of the degree, but the trust that education can still deliver on its promise. The task now is to restore students’ faith by redefining purpose. Institutions that view learning as a fluid and ongoing process will shape the future; the rest risk becoming museums of their own past. If the 20th century was about access to higher education, the 21st must be about access to lifelong learning.
John J Kennedy | Former Professor and Dean, Christ (Deemed) University, Bengaluru
(Views are personal)
(johnjken@gmail.com)
