All India Survey on Higher Education Report (2018-19)
On 21st September 2019, All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report for 2018-19 was released by the HRD ministry.
The survey, undertaken as an annual, web-based, pan-India exercise on the status of Higher Education since 2010-11, covers all the Higher Educational Institutions in the country.
The survey collects data on several parameters like teachers, student enrolment, programmes, examination results, education finance, infrastructure, etc.
Key Findings
Gender gap has been narrowing significantly in India in higher education with Uttar Pradesh for the first time registering more female enrolment in the 18-23 age groups than male students.
Female enrolment has improved from 47.6% in 2017-18 to 48.6% in 2018-19.
The gross enrolment ratio (GER) increased marginally – from 25.8 in 2017-18 to 26.3 in 2018-19 revealing rather worrying trend.
In absolute terms, enrolment increased from 3.66 crore to 3.74 crore students during the same period. GER for SCs has also shown a growth from 21.8 to 23.0 and STs from 15.9 to 17.2.
Number of faculty has also increased from 13.88 lakh to 14.16 lakh.
Number of universities has grown from 903 in 2017-18 to 993 in 2018-19 and total Higher Education Institutions from 49,964 to 51,649 during the same period.
While one-third of undergraduate students are enrolled in humanities, management seems to be a preferred stream at the postgraduate (PG) level. Science, engineering and technology registered relatively more enrolment in M. Phil and Ph.D programmes.
At the undergraduate level, 35.9% of the total enrolment was in arts/ humanities/social science, just 16.5% students are pursuing science, followed by commerce with 14.1%. Engineering is the fourth choice.
