Abstract
The present contribution is the 19th part of the Social Change Indicators series. In this part, we examine the state of higher education and its various facets for different states of India.
Keywords
Higher education plays an important role in improving human capital and promoting the country’s economic and social development. Target 4.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education by the year 2030. The Indian education sector is now one of the world’s largest and is actively pursuing reforms to open up to the global knowledge system. The system that is mostly publicly funded in India presently constitutes 1,113 universities, 43,796 colleges, 1,551,070 teachers, and 41.3 million students (Ministry of Education, 2022). According to the National Education Policy document, the country has set a goal of doubling gross enrolment rates in higher education, including vocational education, from the current 26.3 per cent to 50 per cent in 2035 by adding approximately 35 million new seats in different institutions. While our higher education sector is currently acquiring impetus from government policies, it is worth looking at some of the challenges before it opens up to the world.
The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, published the latest All-India Survey on Higher Education, 2020–21 (Ministry of Education, 2022) as part of the 11th survey round on the country’s higher education statistics. The 19th part of the Social Change Indicators series examines the number and composition of universities as well as the share of government colleges in Indian states (Figures 1–3).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Subsequently, the number of colleges per lakh (0.1 million) population and enrolment in higher education at different levels are presented ( Figures 4 and 5 ). The indicators of average enrolment per college, the share of private colleges in total college enrolment, and the state’s share in all-India graduation enrolment are analysed from Figures 6–8. Successively, Table 1 works out the proportion of higher education enrolment across various social classes. Finally, the share of females in graduation enrolment and aspects of foreign students’ enrolment, pupil–teacher ratio, and higher education out-turn/pass-out are presented in Figures 9 – 12 .
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Proportion of Higher Education Enrolment Across Social Classes, 2020–2021.
Source: Derived from Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Source: Ministry of Education (2022).
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.