AISHE 2020-21

AISHE 2020-21

News: The Union Ministry of Education released data from the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), 2020-2021, which showed a 7.5% increase in student enrolments across the country compared to 2019-20.

About:
 To portray the status of higher education in the country, the Ministry of Education has endeavored to conduct an annual web-based AISHE since 2010-11.
 Data is being collected on parameters such as teachers, student enrolment, examination results, education finance, infrastructure.
 Indicators of educational development such as Institution Density, Gross Enrolment Ratio, Pupil-teacher ratio, Gender Parity Index, Per Student Expenditure will also be calculated from the data collected through AISHE.
 This will help make informed policy decisions and research for development of the education sector.

Key Findings:

Student Enrolment
 Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for all enrolments (as per 2011 Census) increased by over 2 points to 27.3.
 The highest enrolment was seen at the undergraduate level, which accounted for 78.9% of all enrolments.
 The female enrolment in higher education programmes had increased to 49% of total enrolments in 2020-21 compared to 45% in 2019-20.
 But, the overall figures for STEM enrolments (at all levels of higher education) showed that women lagged behind men.
 Gender Parity Index (GPI), the ratio of female GER to male GER, has increased from 1 in 2017-18 to 1.05 in 2020-21.
 The number of students in the Persons with Disabilities category dropped in 2020-21 to 79,035 from 92,831 in 2019-20.
 The proportion of Muslim students enrolling for higher education dropped to 4.6% in 2020-21 from 5.5% in 2019- 20.
 Uttar Pradesh; Maharashtra; Tamil Nadu; Madhya Pradesh; Karnataka and Rajasthan are the top 6 States in terms of number of students enrolled.
 

Number of Universities and College
 During 2020-21, the number of universities has increased by 70, and the number of colleges has increased by 1,453.
 The 21.4% government colleges accounted for 34.5% total enrolments in 2020-21, whereas the rest 65.5% enrolments were seen at private aided colleges and private unaided colleges put together.
 Uttar Pradesh; Maharashtra; Karnataka; Rajasthan; Tamil Nadu; Madhya Pradesh; Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are the top 8 States in terms of number of colleges.
 The female per 100 male faculty has improved to 75 (2021) from 74 (2019) and 63 (2014)

Major issues in India’s higher education system:
 AISHE 2020-21 showed that the teacher-pupil ratio was at 27 for all universities, colleges and standalone institutions and at 24 if only regular mode is considered due to which the quality of education remains a concern.
 Management of Indian higher education faces challenges of lack of accountability, transparency, and professionalism.
 Poor infrastructure
 Issue of Brain Drain where students prefer to go abroad to study owing to cut-throat competition in India, fewer opportunities, lack of quality in teaching and lesser job opportunities.