Last year, a journalist friend of mine who teaches at St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam, asked if I knew anyone interested in enrolling in the journalism program. This question felt unusual, considering the college’s past reputation when only top-ranking students or those with strong connections could secure admission.
Today, many reputed institutions are advertising their courses in leading newspapers, aggressively promoting their programs. This issue is not confined to a single institution or field of study; rather, it highlights the broader crisis affecting higher education in Kerala.
Student Migration Surge
The Kerala Migration Survey, conducted every five years, shows that student migration has doubled post-COVID-19. While students from Kerala have traditionally gone abroad for higher education, the motivation has changed. Earlier, they pursued degrees with plans to return, but now, most are leaving permanently. This is alarming for a state with one of the lowest fertility rates in India.
While migration to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has declined, emigration to Western nations has significantly increased. A recent edition of The Hindu’s Kochi publication, which featured a supplement on the Invest Kerala Global Summit, also carried a large ‘Study Abroad’ advertisement, illustrating the state’s paradox.
Kerala’s Struggle to Adapt
Kerala, once a leader in various sectors, struggled to adapt to economic liberalization. Marxist ideology traditionally viewed private capital and wealth creation with skepticism. Initially, student migration was mostly to neighboring South Indian states, but over time, both youth and capital started moving abroad.
It took over three decades for the Left to acknowledge the problem. Only in 2024 did the state budget finally announce its acceptance of private universities. However, this policy change may have come too late.
The rapid growth of ‘Study Abroad’ consultancies, even in small towns, reflects the increasing number of students seeking overseas education. Unlike the previous generation, which moved abroad for specialized courses after graduation and often returned, today’s students are leaving immediately after school, primarily seeking countries that offer permanent residency (PR).
This trend signals not only a decline in the quality of education within the state but also a lack of job opportunities and insufficient resource allocation by successive governments. The Marxist influence, which relied heavily on the public sector, has played a significant role in this decline.
It may surprise some to learn that the Left once opposed the introduction of computers and tractors in Kerala. Their resistance to the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model proposed by K. Karunakaran, along with efforts to block the Express Highway project in the early 2000s, further hindered progress. By the time they recognized these missteps, the damage was already done.
Demographic and Sociological Consequences
Beyond brain drain, Kerala faces serious demographic and sociological challenges. Unlike Gulf migration, which provided substantial remittances and saw workers returning home, the current trend of youth emigration is concentrated in central Kerala districts like Pathanamthitta, Idukki, and Kottayam. Many young people leave elderly parents behind, starting new lives abroad.
This issue is particularly concerning given that Pathanamthitta (-3%) and Idukki (-1.8%) reported negative population growth rates in the 2011 census. Kerala is steadily becoming a geriatric society. Some parents eventually follow their children abroad, often as babysitters, leaving behind properties that either remain unused or are sold at low prices. This has led to declining land values in central Kerala.
Many settlements in central Travancore are at risk of becoming ghost towns with abandoned houses. The 2011 census reported that 11% of Kerala’s 10 million houses were vacant. By 2019, this had risen to 14%—double the national average—and has likely increased further post-COVID.
A survey by the Kerala Academy of Sciences found that seven out of ten students who leave Kerala for higher studies either have no plans to return or are undecided.
Addressing the Brain Drain
There is no simple solution to Kerala’s brain drain, but job creation is the first step. The state has a large, aspirational middle class that frequently mortgages property to send children abroad.
Land reforms in Kerala, which disrupted the agricultural economy, were a turning point for wealth redistribution. However, small landholdings, high labor costs, and stagnant agricultural prices have made farming unsustainable.
Government job opportunities are limited. Kerala already has an overstaffed bureaucracy, with many redundant positions. However, due to trade union pressures, the government struggles to reallocate personnel. Additionally, Kerala has heavily borrowed in recent years, straining state finances and reducing capital expenditure.
Sectors like tourism could significantly boost the economy if the government played a facilitative role by investing in basic infrastructure such as highways and civic facilities. The neglected state of Fort Kochi beach and Alappuzha illustrates Kerala’s failure to support a high-potential revenue-generating industry. Tourism remains a vital sector that can drive employment and economic growth, even during economic downturns.
Some argue that Kerala’s fragile ecosystem and dense population, with 44 rivers, make it unsuitable for heavy industries. While this may justify missing out on industrialization, the state has also failed to capitalize on the service sector boom over the past three decades, despite having a skilled workforce.
Although Kerala established Technopark during the early years of economic liberalization, it failed to maximize its potential, allowing Bengaluru to dominate the IT industry. Unlike cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad, or Bengaluru, Kerala lacks a major metropolis, but the IT sector, which has largely avoided trade union disruptions, could still absorb a significant portion of the state’s graduates.
Despite being a major consumer market for automobiles, Kerala has not attracted any major vehicle manufacturers. In 2004, when German automaker BMW sought a meeting with then-Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, a statewide strike forced the cancellation. When a second meeting was also disrupted, BMW chose Tamil Nadu instead.
Revamping the Education System
Before improving the business climate, Kerala must first resolve its educational crisis, starting at the school level. Recently, the Director of General Education criticized the practice of automatically promoting students regardless of academic performance, pointing out that many lack basic literacy skills.
Kerala’s private engineering colleges are in steep decline. During the early 2000s boom, there were 167 professional colleges in the state; today, that number has dropped to 90, with many on the verge of closure. Meanwhile, students from Kerala continue to seek medical and nursing admissions in other states due to a shortage of seats at home.
The Kerala state board’s tendency to inflate student grades even prompted Delhi University (DU) to modify its admission criteria to ensure fairness. Consequently, enrollment of Kerala students at DU significantly declined. Additionally, high-profile incidents of student politics and ragging in Kerala have only pushed more students to leave the state.
A study by the Centre for Public Policy Research found that 78% of female students migrating abroad do so in search of a more inclusive society, better lifestyle, and freedom from social stigmas. Policymakers only started addressing this issue when it became evident that youth were choosing foreign shores over Kerala.
For the Left, maintaining campus politics serves a vested interest, as college students continue to replenish the party’s ranks. However, Kerala’s universities, which should be fostering intellectual growth, have instead become strongholds of Marxist ideology, often stifling critical thinking.
The Path Forward
Kerala must modernize its educational curriculum and involve industry stakeholders to ensure graduates have better employment prospects. Violent student politics and the excessive unionization of academia—reducing faculty members to political pawns—must be curbed.
Only then can Kerala hope to reverse this trend. The crucial question remains: who will take the bold step to bring about these reforms? If no action is taken, the exodus will continue unchecked.