AISHE Report

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

Highlight of AISHE Report

• Enrolment: Total student enrolments in higher education increased to nearly 4.13 crore in 2020-21 from 3.85 crore in 2019-20.
  • India witnessed 7.5% increase in student enrolments across the country compared to 2019-20.
  • Since 2014-15, there has been an increase of around 7,200,000 in the enrolment (21%).
• The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education has reached 27.3 per cent. GER is the ratio of 18-23-year-old adults attending college to the total population. It has been calculated according to the 2011 census.

• Gender: The total number of students comprises 51.3 per cent males and 48.7 per cent females.
• Female enrolment in higher education programmes had increased to 49% of total enrolments in 2020-21 compared to 45% the previous year.
  • Female enrolment has increased to 2.01 crore from 1.88 crore in 2019-20.  There has been an increase of around 44 Lakh (28%) since 2014-15.
  • The percentage of female enrolment to total enrolment has increased from 45% in 2014-15 to around 49% in 2020-21.
  • Gender Parity Index (GPI) has increased from 1 in 2017-18 to 1.05 in 2020-21
• Categorisation of Student: Of total of 4.14 crore students enrolled in higher education institutions in India in 2020-21:
  • 14.2 per cent belong to SC: 2 lakh more SC students got enrolled in 2020-21.
  • 5.8 per cent belong to ST: 3 lakh more ST students got enrolled in 2020-21.
  • 35.8 per cent belong to OBC: 6 lakh more OBC students got enrolled in 2020-21.
  • 44.2 percent belong to other communities.
  • Overall enrolment percentage of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) students in higher education institutions has increased notably from 2014-15 to 2020-21.
• Enrolment at UG & PG Level: Highest enrolment was seen at the undergraduate level, which accounted for 78.9% of all enrolments, followed by postgraduate level courses, which accounted for 11.4% of the year’s total enrolments.
  • Amongst UG enrolments, Bachelor of Arts programme (most popular), saw 104 lakh enrolments (52.7% women; 47.3% men), followed by Bachelor of Science courses.
  • Engineering is the only undergraduate programme in the country that has registered a decline in student enrolment over the last five years even as overall admission numbers have increased at the Bachelor’s level.
  • At PG level, the most popular courses remained in the Social Sciences stream, where women accounted for 56% enrolments in 2020-21, followed by Science courses, where women accounted for 61.3% of all enrolments.
  • 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 the PhD level: Most popular course is in the field of Engineering and Technology, followed by Science.
  • In both disciplines, women accounted for less than 50% enrolments (33.3% for Engineering and Tech; and 48.8% for Science).
• STEM Enrolments: The overall figures for STEM enrolments (at all levels of higher education) showed that women lagged behind men, who accounted for over 56% of enrolments in these fields.
• Faculty: Total number of faculty/teachers are 15,51,070 of which about 57.1% are male and 42.9% are female.
  • Under-representation of SC & ST: At All-India level, 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.
  • Female per 100 male faculty has improved to 75 in 2020-21 from 74 in 2019-20 and 63 in 2014-15.
• Number of Institutions:  Number of Universities has increased by 70, and the number of Colleges has increased by 1,453.
  • The maximum increase came in State public universities and State private universities, which saw an increase of 17 and 38 respectively, followed by a rise of 14 in the number of Institutes of National Importance, and an increase of 3 in the number of Central Universities.
  • Government universities constituting 59.1% of total universities contribute 73.1% of total enrolment, whereas 40% of private universities account for only 26.3% of total enrolment.
• State and Regional Performance: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat topped the states with the maximum number of colleges.
  • Districts with the Highest number of Colleges: Bangalore Urban (1058), Jaipur (671), Hyderabad (488), Pune (466), Prayagraj (374), Rangareddy (345), Bhopal (327) and Nagpur (318).
  • 43% universities and 61.4% colleges are located in Rural Areas.
• Miscellaneous: Enrolment in Institute of National Importance (INIs) has increased by nearly 61% during the period 2014-15 to 2020-21.
  • In the Specialized Universities relating to Defence, Sanskrit, Biotechnology, Forensics, Design, Sports etc, enrolment has increased in 2020-21 compared to 2014-15
  • The total number of pass-outs has increased to 95.4 Lakh in 2020-21 as against 94 Lakh in 2019-20.
  • Availability of different infrastructural facilities in HEIs in 2020-21:
    • Libraries (97%)
    • Laboratories (88)
    • Computer centres (91%, 86% in 2019-20)
    • Skill Development Centre (61%, 58% in 2019-20)
    • Connectivity to National Knowledge Network (56%, from 34% in 2019-20)
• Enrolment in distance education has increased by 7 per cent in 2020-21 from 2019-20.

Concern

• Though increase was noted in absolute numbers compared to 2019-20, the proportion of
  • SC students dropped to 14.2% in 2020-21 from 14.7% in 2019-20.
  • OBC students dropped to 35.8% in 2020-21 from 37% in 2019-20.
  • Muslim Students enrolling for higher education dropped from 5.5% in 2019-20 to 4.6% in 2020-21.
  • Other minority students’ dropping from 2.3% in 2019-20 to 2% in 2020-21.
  • Students in the Persons with Disabilities category dropped in 2020-21 to 79,035 from 92,831 in 2019-20.

All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)

• The education ministry has been conducting AISHE since 2011, covering all higher educational institutions in the country.
• The survey collects detailed information on different parameters, such as student enrollment, teacher’s data, infrastructural information, and financial information.

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