Higher education enrolment increased by 4.58% in 2021-22: AISHE report

The total enrolment in higher education institutions increased by 4.58% in 2021-22 from a year ago, with female admissions increasing by almost 3% in the period, according to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report released on Thursday.

The survey conducted by the Union education ministry covers higher educational institutions across the country, collecting detailed information on multiple parameters such as student enrolment, teachers’ data, infrastructural and financial information, among others.

According to the AISHE report released by the ministry, the total enrolment in higher education increased to nearly 43.3 million in 2021-22 from 41.4 million a year ago, a jump of 4.58%. In 2019-20, the enrolment had seen a jump of 7.5% and since 2014-15, there has been a jump of around 9.1 million enrolment (or 26.5%).

Female enrolment increased to 20.7 million in 2021-22 from 20.1 million a year ago, marking a jump of almost 3%, it said.

“There has been an increase of around 50 lakh [5 million] in the female enrolment from 1.57 crore [15.7 million] (or 32%) in 2014-15,” the ministry said.

Read Here | Budget 2024: Here's what stakeholders expect for higher education in India

The first AISHE survey was conducted in 2011.

It highlighted that the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) also increased to 28.4 in 2021-22 from 27.3 in 2020-21 and 23.7 in 2014-15. Besides, female GER increased to 28.5 in 2021-22 from 22.9 in 2014-15.

The GER is the ratio of people enrolled in higher education to the population in the age group of 18-23. Under the National Education Policy 2020, the government targets to raise the GER by 50% by 2035. “Female GER continues to be more than male GER for the fifth consecutive year since 2017-18,” the ministry said.

The report also highlighted an increase in schedule caste (SC) students’ enrolment to 6.62 million in 2021-22 from 5.89 million in 2020-21. Enrolment of scheduled tribe students increased to 2.71 million in 2021-22 from 2.41 million in 2020-21, it said.

The enrolment of SC female students increased to 3.17 million in 2021-22 from 2.9 million in 2020-21 and 2.1 million in 2014-15, the report said. “There has been an increase of 51% since 2014-15,” it said. In case of ST female students, enrolment has increased to 1.34 million in 2021-22 from 1.22 million in 2020-21 and 747,000 in 2014-15. “There has been a significant increase of 80% since 2014-15,” the report added.

Opinion: Improving the quality of higher education

In the other backward classes (OBC) category, enrolment increased to 16.3 million in 2021-22 from 14.8 million the previous year and 14.2 million in 2019-20.

“There is a notable increase in OBC student enrolment since 2014-15 of around 50.8 lakh [5.08 million] (45%). In case of OBC female students, enrolment has increased to 78.19 lakh [7.81 million] in 2021-22 and 52.36 lakh [5.23 million] in 2014-15. There is an overall increase of 49.3% in OBC female student enrolment since 2014-15,” the report said.

Enrolment among minority students also increased to 3 million in 2021-22 from 2.18 million in 2014-15 (a 38% jump). “Female minority student enrolment has increased to 15.2 lakh [1.52 million] in 2021-22 from 10.7 lakh [1.07 million] in 2014-15 (42.3% increase),” the ministry said.

As per response in AISHE 2021-22, about 78.9% of the total students are enrolled in undergraduate level courses and 12.1% in postgraduate level courses.

Read Here: ‘Boom in growth of colleges offering traditional courses in UP’

At the undergraduate level, the report said, enrolment was highest in humanities (34.2%), followed by science (14.8%), commerce (13.3%) and engineering & technology (11.8%). At the postgraduate level, maximum students opted for social science (21.1%) followed by science (14.7%).

The report further highlighted that of the total enrolment in UG, PG, PhD and MPhil courses, 5.72 million students opted science stream, with female students (2.98 million) outnumbering male students (2.74 million) by 8%.

“The PhD enrolment has also increased by 81.2% to 2.12 lakh [212,000] in 2021-22 compared to 1.17 lakh [117,000] in 2014-15 with the number of female students in PhD has doubled to 0.99 lakh [99,000] in 2021-22 from 0.48 lakh [48,000] in 2014-15. The annual increase for the period 2014-15 to 2021-22 in female PhD enrolment is 10.4%,” the ministry said.

The total number of students enrolled in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses in UG, PG, MPhil and PhD levels in 2021-22 was 9.85 million as compared to 9.47 million in 2020-21, the report highlighted.