India’s rapid digital expansion over the past decade has significantly increased internet access, bringing digital technologies as central to higher education, employment, and civic life. Yet growing evidence suggests that digital inequality has not disappeared. Instead, it has changed from lack in access and basic skills towards lack in the outcomes derived from digital engagement. This study examines this outcome-based digital divide, also known as third-level digital divide, among university students in India across economic, academic, social, technological, political, and recreational outcome benefits. University students represent a critical group for understanding these dynamics because higher education is expected to facilitate social mobility and prepare young people for participation in a digital economy. However, students enter universities with unequal social, economic, and linguistic resources that shape their capacity to convert digital engagement into tangible advantages. The study adopts a cross-sectional quantitative research design based on original survey data collected from 460 students enrolled in public and private universities across India. The survey captures socio-demographic characteristics, digital background variables, and multiple indicators of outcome-based digital benefits. Multivariate regression models are used to examine how individual and structural factors shape digital outcomes across different life domains. The findings reveal that language proficiency, socio-economic background, and parental education are the most consistent predictors of positive digital outcomes. Students with stronger linguistic and economic resources are significantly more likely to use digital technologies for employment opportunities, academic support, financial activities, engagement with government services, and civic expression. The analysis also indicates that digital benefits are uneven across domains, with economic and technological outcomes more strongly stratified than recreational outcomes. This study concludes that India’s digital divide among university students is increasingly defined by outcome inequality rather than access.
Avinash Pandey (Thu,) studied this question.