AISHE Report 2017-18: GER close to 26%, PhD enrolment at just 0.5% of total student enrolment

NEW DELHI, JULY 31: The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education in the country has slightly increased to 25.8% as compared to 25.2% last year, as per the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) Report 2017-18. Interestingly, the increase in the number of female enrolment is as much as thrice of the increase in male enrolment over last year.

As per the report, the GER for the male and female population is 26.3% and 25.4% respectively in 2017-18. The GER in 2016-17 was 26.0% for male and 24.5% for female.

The latest report also underlines the stark difference in access to higher education in different parts of the country. Sample this: the density of colleges located in the eastern and north-eastern part of the country is way below that of the western and southern region. The number of colleges per lakh eligible population in the age-group of 18-23 years varies from only seven in Bihar to 51 in Karnataka and Telangana as compared to the All India average of 28.

The report is based on details shared by 882 Universities, 38,061 Colleges and 9090 Stand Alone Institutions out of the total 903 Universities, 39,050 Colleges and 10,011 Stand Alone Institutions listed on AISHE portal.

According to the AISHE report, the top 8 States in terms of highest number of colleges in India are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

When it comes down to districts, the top 50 districts have about 32.6% of colleges and around 60% colleges are located in Rural Area. Bangalore Urban district tops in terms of the number of colleges, there are as many as 893 colleges functioning from there, followed by Jaipur with 558 colleges.

Undergraduate Enrolment
The total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be close to 36.6 million with 19.2 million male and 17.4 million female candidates. Girls constitute 47.6% of the total enrolment.

The target of reaching 30% GER, calculated for 18-23 years of age group by 2020 seems well within reach as at present it has reached 25.8%. Currently, GER for the male population is 26.3% and for females, it is 25.4%. For Scheduled Castes, GER is 21.8% and for Scheduled Tribes, it is 15.9% as compared to the national GER of 25.8%.

While only 79.2% of the students who complete their senior secondary are enrolled in the Undergraduate level programme, only 0.5% candidates of the total enrolled in undergraduate programmes across discipline go for PhD enrolment. As per the report, the total number of PhD enrolment is about 1.61 lakh only.

It is still the Humanities and Social Sciences stream which get the maximum number of candidates at the UG level, the report states, adding that the maximum numbers of students are enrolled in B.A. programme followed by B.Sc. and B.Com. At the UG level, the highest number (36.4%) of students are enrolled in Humanities and Social Sciences courses followed by Science (17.1%), Engineering and Technology (14.1%) and Commerce (14.1%).

B.A. degree gets the maximum number of students, which is 23.89 Lakh followed by B.Sc. (11.52 Lakh) and B.Com (9.39 Lakh) at second and third position respectively.

Postgraduate and PhD Enrolment
Due to lack of career advancement and research opportunities a minuscule size of student population opt for PhD programmes. The report states, “Only 3.6% Colleges run PhD programme and 36.7% Colleges run PG level programmes.”

At the PG level, maximum students are enrolling in Social Science stream followed by Management discipline. At PhD level, the maximum number of students is enrolled in Science stream followed by Engineering and Technology.

The major research activities largely remain with government institution. The report states that the share of PhD student is highest in State Public University (31.6%) followed by Institute of National Importance (20.4%), Central University (15.8%) and Deemed University-Private (13.4%).

The state of Uttar Pradesh comes at number one with the highest student enrolment followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Faculty strength
The total number of teachers working at various higher education institutions in the country stands at 12.84 lakh, out of which about 58.0% are male teachers and 42.0% are female teachers.