New Delhi | The university education system is outdated worldwide, said Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sajeev Sanyal on Wednesday, while calling for an academic system that focuses on skilling.

Speaking at 'India Global Innovation Connect 2026', Sanyal said that since knowledge is entirely free, this essentially merges skilling with education, apprenticeships and work experience.

Sanyal emphasised that it is much better to think about an academic framework where education and skilling essentially merge.

"The way we have set up our education system is basically a 19th-century construct. I am particularly talking here about tertiary education, not basic education," he said.

Sanyal said currently, a student completes a four-year or three -year undergraduate and maybe a master's degree and then he is expected to live off that knowledge accumulation through the course of the rest of their lives.

"Now this was a wonderful idea in the 19th century, when you studied till maybe your early 20s, and then you work for 18 years, and then you probably die.

"But now everybody is going to live it well into the 80s. Now you are expecting people to essentially live off knowledge they accumulated 30-40 years earlier and live off that," he opined.

According to Sanyal, it is clearly not possible anymore, and not necessary when knowledge is essentially freely available, anybody with an internet connection can download whatever knowledge you want.

"So, this system of creating these sorts of skills is already outdated...this university system, not just in India, worldwide, is outdated," he said.

He suggested that the universities need to push the new frontiers of knowledge focused on research