62% of India’s Student Enrollments Driven by Digital, Reveals Meritto’s Newly-Launched Enrollment Index 2025, An Industry-First

[New Delhi, February 12, 2025] – As India’s education sector undergoes a rapid digital transformation, Meritto’s industry-first Enrollment Index 2025 reveals that digital channels now account for 71.78% of student leads, 77.96% of paid applications, and 61.55% of total enrollments, underscoring the dominance of tech-enabled enrollment strategies. Designed through AI-driven analysis of 2.3 crore student leads, Meritto’s newly launched Enrollment Index provides a comprehensive roadmap for educational institutions to optimize their strategies by analyzing regional trends, top-performing channels, and key conversion challenges.

Digital channels have emerged as the backbone of large-scale enrollment efforts, but their success lies in overcoming mid-funnel drop-offs and optimizing conversion rates. While non-digital channels still deliver 38.45% of enrollments, their shrinking contribution to leads (28.22%) and applications (22.04%) signals a critical shift. Digital-first institutions that reduce mid-funnel friction with precision targeting, automated engagement, and data-driven decision-making are leading the charge.

The Index highlights that Brandpull leads the way, contributing 26.25% of total enrollments and 37.79% of paid applications, as educational institutions increasingly realize the importance of brand and its touchpoints by optimizing websites, personalizing content, and leveraging technologies like chatbots to drive conversions. As students rely more on online research and expect real-time responses, the Index positions Brandpull as a key player in maximizing digital enrollment success.

Paid channels continue to drive significant enrollment contributions, with the top five platforms collectively contributing 20.03% of the overall enrollment share in the country. Google leads with 10.13% of enrollments, reflecting its ability to deliver high-intent leads through optimized funnels. Shiksha follows with 3.84% enrollments, leveraging its program-specific targeting and efficient conversion process. Collegedunia contributes 3.47% of enrollments, primarily driven by its large lead pool, while CollegeDekho and GetMyUni round out the list with 1.81% and 0.78% of enrollments, respectively, demonstrating the importance of maintaining a diversified digital media mix.

The Index also reveals dynamic student mobility trends, showing significant cross-regional flows. The North, South, and West Zones retain over 80% of their students locally, reflecting strong regional preferences. The Central Zone is also a significant source of outbound student mobility. It sends 15.46% of its students to the North Zone and 15.01% to the West Zone. Strategic corridors, such as East-to-North (26.11%) and Central-to-North (15.46%), present institutions with opportunities to target mobile students through region-specific outreach programs.

At the state level, regions like Tamil Nadu and Punjab retain over 90% of their students locally, highlighting strong regional loyalty. In contrast, states like Bihar see significant outbound migration, with 29.16% of its students moving to Punjab. Institutions targeting high-outbound regions can design state-specific digital campaigns to attract or retain students effectively.

Naveen Goyal, Founder and CEO of Meritto said: “The Enrollment Index 2025 underscores a simple truth winning in enrollments requires more than just generating leads. Institutions succeeding today are those optimizing every touchpoint in the enrollment lifecycle through digital precision, data-backed decisions, and seamless automation. The future of student enrollment belongs to those who can master scale and personalization simultaneously, ensuring every lead is nurtured into an enrollment.”

Goyal added, “Institutions that build this level of operational agility will not only thrive in 2025 but set the benchmark for the future of education marketing.”

The Meritto Enrollment Index Radar, a key component of the Index, evaluates traffic channels across key dimensions, including lead generation efficiency, conversion efficiency, adaptability, and regional coverage. The Radar helps institutions identify high-performing channels, offering a blueprint for improvement.

Serving over 1,200 educational organizations, including universities, K-12 schools, study abroad consultancies, coaching centers, and EdTech platforms, Meritto is driving this transformation. By combining actionable data with integrated technology, Meritto is helping institutions achieve sustainable growth, increased productivity, and superior student experiences.

For more insights, the full Meritto Enrollment Index 2025 is available for download at https://www.meritto.com/insights/enrollmentindex2025/