TOWARD A FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY AND ROI FRAMEWORK FOR INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: A GLOBAL BENCHMARKING PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper proposes a generalized Financial Transparency and ROI Framework (FTI) for Indian higher education institutions, designed to empower student decision-making and improve institutional accountability. Drawing upon international benchmarks such as NACUBO (USA), IPEDS, the UK’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and Australia’s QILT system, the study identifies the systemic gap in India regarding public financial disclosure, tuition utilization, and return on investment (ROI) transparency. The paper constructs a student-centric FTI model with proposed indicators and weighting logic and makes policy recommendations for integrating this framework into India’s existing quality assurance mechanisms like NAAC and NIRF. Comparative charts and examples are presented to illustrate how other nations have embedded financial openness into their higher education ecosystems and how India can adapt similar tools to foster trust, financial literacy, and equity in student admissions.