Enterprise Culture in the Galli: Youth, Coaching Classes, and Higher Education in Patna

India is now home to the world's largest population of youth, most of whom are first generation learners from poor, rural backgrounds in the populous North Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Youth aspirations for higher education are linked to a desire for social mobility and for secure futures in low-paid government jobs. These aspirations are being fulfilled only partly in declining public universities, and more so in low-cost, poor quality coaching centres in urban gallis. I present an embedded account of the shifting geographies of higher education in Patna, from the once reputed Patna University, to the galliacross the university, where a visible enterprise culture of coaching promises the youth "guaranteed success" in entrance exams for jobs. The lofty ideals of the university as promoting knowledge for its own sake, and the historical reputation of the Patna University, is thus counterposed with a story of its decline and abandonment by the youth; and a rising shadow market of poor quality coaching, adopting explicit metaphors of competition and success.