The admission season in Kerala's colleges no longer resembles the confident academic cycles that campuses once enjoyed. Instead of selecting bright minds from the allotment pool as in the past, many colleges are now aggressively vying for students through social media campaigns, promotional reels, roadside flex boards and digital advertisements to fill vacant seats. The shift reflects a deeper transformation happening in Kerala's higher education sector, where declining enrolment, migration of students and changing career aspirations look to reshape conventional college education.The data furnished by the directorate of collegiate education, in an RTI response to TOI, has shown a 25% decrease in enrolment in govt and aided colleges in the last five academic years, particularly a sudden slump since 2022-23.In the last five years, the state's higher education sector witnessed several structural reforms, including the introduction of Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP), but they appear to have hardly impacted the state's gross enrolment ratio (GER).Data from some individual universities also expose the precarious situation. The number of students enrolled in Calicut University dipped to 88,358 in 2025-26 from 92,798 in 2021-22. Kannur University had 18,779 students in 2021-22 but only 15,618 joined it in the just-concluded academic year.Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit admitted 1,232 students in 2021-22, but the number came down to 1,123 in 2025-26 while Mahatma Gandhi University departments too saw a drop of over 16% in the last five years.Unemployment, underemploymentUnemployment and underemployment have become defining realities for many young graduates after college education. Miya George (21, name changed) said she spent months searching for a job after completing her bachelor's degree from a reputed college in Kochi before taking up a salesgirl's job at a clothing store. She has now secured admission at a university in Ireland, hoping that migration will provide her better career opportunities and financial security."Opportunities related to my education were not there. I never really wanted to leave my family and the lifestyle here, but I feel migration is the only option left if I want a better future," said George.Enrolment in higher education institutions (HEI) dropped despite the govt initiating policies to increase GER in the institutions. Shyam B Menon Commission for Reforms in Higher Education had suggested the state govt improve GER by 60% by 2031. But with enrolments to colleges in Kerala declining, it appears to be a difficult goal to achieve."We believe the outstanding foundation provided by the universalisation of school education can help Kerala raise its GER to 60% by 2031 and 75% by 2036. Moving from 60% to 75% in that time span will be difficult but not impossible. The state should set achieving 60% GER in 2031 as its proximate goal of public policy," the commission had stated in its report to the govt. Govt College Teachers Organization president Gladston Raj said govt colleges were at a serious risk of low enrolments. He said the significantly less interest among students for higher education after completing Class XII was leading to the decline."Aspirations of youth have changed, many of them stop traditional education by Class XII and opt for skill-oriented courses. It has affected enrolment for many courses," said Raj.Demographic changeExperts suggest that migration of students is primarily occurring within India, not to foreign countries, impacting the enrolment numbers in the state. Demographic change, primarily owing to migration to foreign counties, too has been a reason.Binoy Peter of Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development said: "There is a demographic change which is causing a gradual decline in enrolments to schools and colleges, but the sudden shift is due to migration, primarily to states outside Kerala rather than abroad," said.Peter further said that most nationally acclaimed higher education institutions have seen increased enrolment of Malayali students."The digital exposure has allowed students to learn more about courses in various universities. Academically bright candidates are opting for reputed institutions nationally to pursue their education. They settle for institutions in Kerala only when they fail to secure admission to such institutes," said Peter.Families, experts say, are increasingly becoming nuclear and their biggest investment is on education. Sending children abroad for education, mostly by availing loans, has significantly increased the families' financial burden.Centre for Socio-Economic and Environment Studies director N Ajith Kumar said: "As bank loans are easily available, families generally mortgage their assets to get a loan for education, but more than half of the students who migrate abroad from the state are seeking employment prospects rather than quality education and end up in mediocre institutions abroad. This education doesn't even provide the skill sets that are needed for employment within India and the families end up in debt trap," said Kumar.Despite the low GER in most higher educational institutions, there is significant increase in enrolment for open education as well as technical education in the state. The enrolment in Sreenarayanaguru Open University increased tremendously from 5,408 students in 2022-23 to 31,183 in 2024-25. KTU, which admitted 32,586 students in 2021-22, saw 48,747 joining it in 2025-26.