AISHE Report: 11 states, UTs see higher education enrolment drop, 3 by over 5%

NEW DELHI: While the overall enrolment in higher education increased to 4.33 crore in 2021-22 from 4.14 crore in 2020-21 – an increase of 4.3% – there are 11 states and union territories which witnessed a drop in enrolment, shows the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE). Lakshadweep, Manipur and Uttarakhand were among the states and union territories whose enrolment dropped by over 5%.

In Lakshadweep in 2020-21, there were 560 students enrolled in undergraduate programmes; their number stood at 88 in 2021-22 – a drop of 84%. Out of the 88 enrolled, 14 were men and 74 were female. However, Lakshadweep does not have any university or college or stand-alone institutions of its own but three postgraduate or off-shore campuses of University of Calicut, Malappuram.

The ministry of education’s higher education department released the AISHE report on January 25, a document which is a source of data on higher education in the country. The survey was initiated in 2011, during which data for the year 2010-11 was collected.

AISHE: Uttarakhand sees 8.4% drop

Uttarakhand was another state which saw a steep 8.4% drop in enrolment in the 2021-22 academic year. The figure represents the total number of students enrolled in undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD, diploma, certificate, and integrated programmes.

AISHE Portal Data: Drop in Enrolment

AISHE Data: Programmes which saw a drop

In the case of Uttarakhand, it was in the PhD programmes and the postgraduate diploma courses where enrolment fell. When in 2020-21 around 6,632 students were enrolled in the programme, the number dropped to 4,473 in the 2021-22 academic year. The proportion of men enrolled in the course dropped by around 2,500, from 4,900 in 2020-21.

Meanwhile, for Manipur, the drop in enrolment is mostly due to the decrease in the number of students at the undergraduate level. When in 2020-21, 121,507 students were enrolled, the number dropped to 1,12,557, amounting to a 7.4% decrease. The number of women enrolled in the course dropped by almost 5,800 at that level.

Kerala, which also saw a 4.4% drop in enrolment, the programmes with the maximum drop were the undergraduate and certificate-level courses. At the UG level, the drop in enrolment was 71,592 students. It was women’s enrolment which dropped by 56,902, from 6,33,728 in 2020-21. In this state, contrary to Uttarakhand, PhD programmes have seen an increase by almost 4.33%.

Also read Student enrolment rose in BEd, fell in BTech over 5 years: AISHE

AISHE: Where enrolment rose

West Bengal was the state which witnessed the maximum increase in enrolment – 18% from 2020-21 to 2021-22. The lion’s share of increase was at the undergraduate level, from 17,93,168 in 2020-21 to 21,86,988 in the next session. The increase could be attributed to the increase in the number of public state universities, up from 29 to 35.

Following West Bengal were the neighbouring states of Bihar and Jharkhand whose enrolment increased by 10% over the same period. Even the northeastern state of Nagaland saw an increase in enrolment by about 8.33% and Gujarat by 8%.