Highest enrolment in BA courses, maximum PhD students in engineering and tech streams: AISHE report

NEW DELHI: Bachelor of Arts (BA) courses had the highest enrolment in the country at 1.04 crore students, followed by Bachelor of Science (BSc) courses at 49.12 lakh students, according to the government's All India Survey for Higher Education (AISHE) 2020-21.

The survey report released by the Ministry of Education showed that of the 1.04 crore students enrolled in Bachelor of Arts (BA), 52.7 per cent are girls and 47.3 per cent are boys. "Bachelor of Science (BSc) has 49.12 lakh students enrolled (of them 52.2 per cent are girls).

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There are 43.22 lakh students enrolled in BCom (of them 48.5 per cent are girls). BTech has 23.20 lakh enrolled students, of which 28.7 per cent are females. Bachelor of Engineering (BE) has 13.42 lakh students enrolled, out of which 28.5 per cent are females," the report said.

At the postgraduate level, the maximum number of students are enrolled in Social Science stream (9.41 lakh students, of whom 56.5 per cent were girls), followed by Science. "The total number of PG students in Social Science courses is 9,41,648, out of which 56.5 per cent are female students. Total enrolment in Science stream has 6,79,178, out of which 61.3 per cent are females. Management stream has 6,86,001 students enrolled for PG with 43.1 per cent being girls.

"Commerce stream has 5.36 lakh students enrolled for PG with 66.5 pc female students. There are 3.20 lakh students enrolled in PG in Indian languages which is divided into 12 sub-streams. The number of students enrolled in Education stream is 2.06 lakh, in which major contribution is female with 64.4 pc," it said.

At PhD level, the maximum number of students are enrolled in Engineering and Technology stream, closely followed by Science. Engineering and Technology stream is divided into 21 sub-streams with a total of 56,625 students enrolled for PhD, out of which 33.3 per cent are women.

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Science stream has 48,600 students enrolled for PhD with 48.8 per cent women. It is divided into 17 sub-streams such as Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Zoology. STEM includes Science stream (including Mathematics) and Engineering & Technology stream. The Enrolment in STEM (at UG, PG, MPhil and PhD levels) is 94.69 lakh, out of which 53.74 lakh (56.8 pc) are males and 40.94 lakh (43.2 pc) females.

The Ministry of Education has been conducting All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) since 2011, covering all higher educational institutions located in the country and imparting higher education. The survey collects detailed information on different parameters such as student enrolment, teachers' data, infrastructural information, financial information, etc.

For the first time, in AISHE 2020-21, the higher education institutions, or HEIs, have filled the data online through the Web Data Capture Format (DCF) developed by the Department of Higher Education with the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).