'99% of private colleges are a scam': Finfluencer slams rising fees, falling placements

India’s private colleges are facing sharp criticism as placement rates collapse and fees continue to rise. According to Wisdom Hatch founder and finfluencer Akshat Shrivastava, the average placement rate in private colleges has plunged from 60–80% in 2021–22 to just 20–40% in 2023–24, raising serious questions about the value of private education.

Shrivastava, writing on LinkedIn, alleged that “99% of private colleges in India are a scam.” Despite declining placement outcomes, he said, these institutions continue to advertise inflated ‘CTC’ packages, hike their fees, and push students into deeper debt.

“They create an ecosystem: where most teachers don't know how to teach, most students don't even want to attend college. And, yet the management keeps minting money,” he said. As the global economy shifts toward rewarding skill-based outcomes, Shrivastava warned that this traditional college model “has no place.”

His criticism comes at a time when the cost of education in India has surged dramatically. Between 1980 and 2020, average tuition, accommodation, and other undergraduate expenses rose by 169%, according to the National Sample Survey Office.

Graduate course fees increased by 5.8% and postgraduate course fees rose by 13.19% between 2014 and 2018, while primary education costs climbed 30.7% during the same period.

States like Maharashtra and Karnataka have seen even steeper hikes, with private engineering and professional course fees rising 60–70% over the last decade. A private engineering degree that cost ₹1 lakh a year in 2010 now costs ₹3 lakh annually, reflecting a 200% jump.

Premium institutions have also seen steep increases. IITs doubled their annual B.Tech fees to ₹2 lakh in 2016, and a full B.Tech now costs ₹8–10 lakh. An MBA at IIMs costs ₹20–25 lakh, while Ashoka University’s annual undergraduate fees rose from ₹8 lakh in 2018 to ₹12.28 lakh in 2024.

With education inflation running at 11–12% per year, families are under growing financial strain — stretching their resources or falling into debt to fund degrees that increasingly offer diminishing returns.