PATNA, India – On the outskirts of this sprawling city in one of India’s poorest states, the whitewashed columns and domes of Chanakya National Law University rise next to a deep and murky swamp. To get there, visitors bump along potholed streets lined with idle men sipping tea and cows rooting through piles of garbage.

Despite its inauspicious location, the 4-year-old university has high aspirations.

“We’re in a position to be a leading national law school,” said Ravi Sarma, an assistant professor of property law, who moved to Bihar from a nearby state to teach at Chanakya.

The university, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, is part of an ambitious plan to expand higher education to India’s most destitute corners, where the country’s vast population of young people is concentrated.

Of 1.2 billion Indians, one-third is under the age of 14. In Bihar, 1.7 million children under the age of 6 were added to the population over the past decade, a 10-percent increase. (In contrast, less than a quarter of the U.S. population is under the age of 18, according to the 2010 census.) Realizing that the country’s youth bulge could be an asset in its efforts to become a world power, or a disaster that drains its resources and fuels social unrest, the Indian government has responded with an ambitious university building spree.

The effort could help India in its economic competition with China and the United States. While the United States may have enough post-secondary institutions, the Obama administration has warned that the country’s higher education system is falling behind. Poor graduation rates plague the lower-tier schools that educate the vast majority of students, even as budget cuts and rising tuition are making it more difficult for American students to enter college and graduate.