India, May 20 -- India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was introduced with ambitious promises - flexibility, multidisciplinary learning, academic mobility, and freedom of choice for students. It was projected as a transformative framework that would liberate higher education from rigid silos and allow students to shape their own intellectual journeys. Yet, for many students navigating the system today, the reality feels painfully different. Instead of flexibility, they encounter rigidity. Instead of mobility, they face institutional bottlenecks. And instead of opportunity, they often find exclusion.

Imagine a student who has consistently excelled throughout college. A topper at the University of Mumbai with a CGPA above 9, deeply ...