All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), 2018-19

The report notes that 37.4 million students are enrolled in higher education institutions, which include universities, colleges and stand-alone institutions. Of these, 19.2 million students are male and 18.2 million are female.

As of 2018-19, 29.8 million students in higher education institutions are enrolled in undergraduate degree programmes, across all disciplines. Over 4 million students are enrolled in post-graduate programmes and the rest are enrolled in diploma courses, for post-graduate diplomas, in certificate courses, MPhil courses and for PhDs.

Scheduled Caste (SC) students constitute 14.89 per cent of those enrolled in higher education institutions, 5.53 per cent of students are from Scheduled Tribes (STs), 36.34 per cent are from Other Backward Classes, 5.23 per cent are Muslims and 2.33 per cent are from other minority communities.

There are 85,877 students with disabilities enrolled in higher education programmes, and they account for 0.2 per cent of the total enrolment.

Of the 993 universities registered with the All India Survey on Higher Education, 385 universities are privately managed, 394 are located in rural areas, and 16 universities are exclusively for women.

The states with the highest number of colleges are Uttar Pradesh (7,078 colleges), Maharashtra (4,340), Karnataka (3,670), Rajasthan (3,156), Andhra Pradesh (2,678), Tamil Nadu (2,466), Gujarat (2,232), and Madhya Pradesh (2,191). The first six of these eight states constitute over 54 per cent of the total student enrolment in India.

Only 2.5 per cent of all colleges offer PhD programmes, and 34.9 per cent run post-graduate programmes.

In 2018, 40,813 students – 23,765 males and 17,048 females – were awarded PhDs.

India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education – defined as the ratio of the total enrolment in higher education, regardless of age, to the official population in a given school year, expressed as percentage – is 26.3 per cent. It is 26.3 per cent for males, 26.4 per cent for females, 23 per cent for SCs and 17.2 per cent for STs.

More males than females are enrolled at all levels of higher education except for M.Phil., postgraduate and certificate courses.

The Gender Parity Index for higher education – the ratio of female to male students in higher education – is 100 female students to 100 males. For SCs and STs, it is 102 and 92 female students per 100 male students.

The government owns 22.2 per cent of the country’s colleges, while 77.8 per cent are privately managed, and these account for 66.4 per cent of the total enrolment of students in the country.

In India, 16.3 per cent of all colleges have less than 100 students, 48.1 per cent have between 100 and 500 students, and four per cent have more than 3000 students.

Of the over 1.4 million (1,416,299) teachers in higher education institutions, 57.8 per cent are males and 42.2 per cent are females.

In higher education institutions in India, the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) is 26. PTR refers to the average number of students per teacher at a specific level of education in a given academic year.

Focus and Factoids by Rituparna Palit.