India's 22:1 student-teacher ratio in colleges may hide faculty gaps

India's higher education system, with about 1,200 universities, 50,000 colleges and 15,000 standalone institutes, reports a national pupil-teacher ratio of 22:1, within the regulatory range of 15:1 to 25:1. But the figure may be misleading, as the data does not separate private and public institutions or break numbers down by discipline, even as many faculty posts lie vacant.