Student enrolments in higher studies rose by 7.5% in 2020-21: AISHE data

• Recently the Union Ministry of Education has released data from the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), 2020-2021.

Highlights of the Report:

• Status of School Enrolments:
• Increased by 7.5% across the country from the 2019-20 figures.
• With the advant of COVID-19 pandemic, there was a 7% rise in enrolments in distance education programmes.
• Increase in the enrollment of SC, ST and OBC students (2 lakh, 3 lakh and 6 lakh students respectively) for higher education in 2020-21 than in the previous year.
• Female enrolment had increased to 49% of the total enrolments in 2020-21 compared with 45% the previous year.
• Proportion in different categories dropping:
  • SC students: 14.2% in 2020-21 from 14.7% the previous year
  • OBC students: 35.8% in 2020-21 from 37%.
  • Muslim students: 4.6% from 5.5% in 2019-20
  • Other minority students: 2% from 2.3%.
  • Students in the Persons with Disabilities category: 79,035 from 92,831.
• Gross Enrolment Ratio:
• The Gross Enrolment Ratio for all enrolments (as per 2011 Census) increased by over 2 points to 27.3.
• The highest enrolment was seen at the undergraduate level, (78.9% of all enrolments), followed by postgraduate level courses (11.4% of the year’s total enrolments).

• Undergraduate Enrolments:
• Most popular course: the BA programme (52.7% women; 47.3% men), followed by BSc courses (women outnumbered men) followed by the Bachelor of Commerce programme (48.5% women enrolments).
• In B.Tech. and Bachelor of Engineering courses, women accounted for less than 30% of all enrolments.
• Postgraduate Level:
• Most popular course: in the social sciences stream (56% women enrolments), followed by science courses (61.3% women).
• Except for management courses at the PG-level, where enrolment of women stood at 43.1%, all other PG courses saw women outnumbering men.
• At PhD level
• Most popular course: in the field of engineering and technology, followed by science; (50% women in both; 33.3% for engineering and tech; and 48.8% for science).
• The overall figures for STEM enrolments (at all levels of higher education) showed that women lagged behind men.
• Education Institutions:
• During 2020-21, the number of universities has increased by 70, and the number of colleges has increased by 1,453.
• Government universities constituting 59.1% of total universities contribute 73.1% of total enrolment
• 40% private universities account for only 26.3% of total enrolment.
• Number of teachers: increased across higher education institutes, SC and ST teachers continued to be under-represented.
• 56.2% teachers belong to General category; 32.2% to OBC; 9.1% to SC and 2.5% to ST category.
• About 5.6% teachers come from Muslim minority group and 8.8% are from other minority groups.
• There were 75 women teachers to every 100 male ones across institutes in the country.
• Teacher-pupil ratio: at 27 for all universities, colleges and stand-alone institutions and at 24 if only regular mode is considered.
  • Highest in States like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.