Economist Sanjeev Sanyal has said that pursuing Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams for job stability is a complete ‘waste of time’, as India’s long-standing obsession with university degrees and competitive exams such as the UPSC has become outdated.
While speaking at the ANI podcast, Sanyal remarked that traditional curriculum and test studying are becoming less important because of changing technologies and AI-driven learning. He said that while pursuing degrees and entering government services may have made sense in the 1960s, rapid technological change has fundamentally altered how skills and knowledge are acquired.
Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC), further said university education was
historically an elite activity and became widespread only in the 20th century. However, he argued that lecture-based teaching is now losing relevance as technology and AI can deliver knowledge more efficiently than traditional classrooms.
“Being a stenographer may have been a good option for somebody in the 1940s, but technology has changed, and it has now become a routine affair,” he said.
According to him, tertiary education and skill development need to merge, with greater emphasis on apprenticeships and practical learning. He said the distinction between “high-end” university education and vocational skills is collapsing, as people can now learn almost any subject online and acquire new skills at any stage of life.
He called the issue with AI outpacing traditional college education “a problem for the skilling system”.
“There is a collapse between the idea of skilling and tertiary education. Earlier, skilling was seen as something plumbers did, and tertiary education was seen as this place where all the hi-fi went and did some great philosophical intellectual upgradation,” Sanyal said.
Sanyal also questioned the idea of spending four years in university before entering the workforce, suggesting that people should begin working at 18 and pursue degrees alongside jobs. He stated that the education system should make it much more oriented towards apprenticeships and actual skills because the “industry is ahead of academia”.
“People should get people into jobs early. You should actually think that at 18 people find jobs, and do degrees on the side, the economist added, citing Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu and billionaire Elon Musk,” he added.
While acknowledging that universities will continue to play a role, particularly in fields requiring hands-on training, Sanyal said their current structure needs major reform. He welcomed recent changes allowing flexible exit options from degree programmes but criticised what he described as outdated thinking embedded in long-duration degrees.
On the impact of artificial intelligence, Sanyal said it would cause significant disruption but should be embraced, as it enables people with lower formal qualifications to perform tasks that previously required extensive training.
“AI needs to be embraced, will cause a great deal of disruption but those who embrace it fast will use it as a tool to upgrade themselves,” Sanyal said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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