All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20

The AISHE web portal has 1,043 universities from across India registered on it. All but 24 of these from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh, provided data for the 2019-20 survey.

About 65.5 per cent of colleges have less than 500 students enrolled, and 16.6 per cent of them have less than 100. Only four per cent of colleges have more than 3,000 students. 

According to survey results, the number of students enrolled in higher education as of September 30, 2019, is over 38.5 million. Of these, 79.5 per cent (30.6 million students) are enrolled in undergraduate degree programmes, 11.2 per cent (4.3 million students) are in post-graduate programmes and the rest are enrolled in diploma courses, for post-graduate diplomas, in certificate courses, MPhil courses and for PhDs.

Nearly 51,000 students are doing PhDs in the sciences. With 9,526 scholars, chemistry has the highest the highest number of PhD candidates, of whom 5,554 are male and 3,972 are female. This is followed by 7,439 (4,632 male and 2,807 female) students in physics, and 5,284 (2,360 male and 2,924 female) students in mathematics.

Of the 38.5 million students enrolled in higher education, 51 per cent are female and 49 per cent are male. About 14.7 per cent of students are from Scheduled Castes (SCs), 5.6 per cent are from Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 37 per cent are from Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

According to AISHE 2019-20, the 49,348 foreign nationals enrolled in higher education in India are from 168 countries. Most are from Nepal (28.1 per cent), followed by Afghanistan (9.1 per cent), Bangladesh (4.6 per cent) and Bhutan (3.8 per cent).

Among those who graduated from undergraduate programmes in 2019, 20.3 lakh studied arts or humanities, 10.8 lakh studied science and 9.3 lakh studied commerce. Roughly 8.2 lakh students passed with engineering or technology degrees, and 2.38 lakh did medicine.

About 42.5 per cent of the 1.5 million teachers recorded in the 2019-20 survey are women, and the rest are men. At 56.5 per cent, most teachers are from the general category, and 32.1 per cent are from OBCs, nine per cent are from SCs, 2.4 per cent are from STs, 5.6 per cent are Muslims, and nine per cent are from other minority communities.

Of the 1.2 million non-teaching posts in the surveyed institutions, 52.8 per cent are from the general category, 28.3 per cent are OBC, 14.3 per cent are SC and 4.5 per cent are ST. The states with the highest percentage of male non-teaching staff members are Bihar (83 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (77.9 per cent) and West Bengal (76.8 per cent).

The report notes that 92 per cent of colleges, 91 per cent of stand-alone institutions and 89 per cent of universities have playgrounds; while 98 per cent of colleges and stand-alone institutions and 94 per cent of universities have library facilities. The survey also found that 93 per cent of stand-along institutions, 85 per cent of universities and 82 per cent of colleges have laboratories.

The enrolment of female students has increased from 86 per 100 males in 2015-16, to 96 per 100 males in 2019-20. 

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 – increased from 24.5 to 27.1 per cent from 2015-16 to 2019-20. During the same period, it rose from 19.9 to 23.4 per cent for SCs, and from 14.2 to 18 per cent for STs.

The Gender Parity Index for higher education – the ratio of female to male students in higher education – increased from 92 to 101 female students for 100 males from 2015-16 to 2019-20. During the same period, it rose from 91 to 105 females for 100 males among SCs, and from 83 to 97 females for 100 males among STs.

Female enrolment in MA, MSc and M. Com programmes has seen a sharp rise in the last five years. But their participation remains low in undergraduate programs such as BBA, B. Tech and LLB.

Focus and Factoids by Nikita Sawhney.