ALL INDIA SURVEY ON HIGHER EDUCATION (AISHE) 2021-2022

The Institutions, under AISHE are classified in the following three broad categories: -

• University/University Level Institutions: - The Institutions which are empowered to award degrees under some Act of Parliament or State Legislature.
• Colleges/Institutions which are not empowered to provide degrees in its name and therefore are affiliated/ recognized with universities.
• Stand-alone Institutions (not affiliated with universities): These Institutions generally run Diploma/PG Diploma level programmes for which they require recognition from one or other Statutory Bodies. E.g. Polytechnique.

Number of Institutions

• The total number of Universities / University level institutions registered is 1,168, Colleges 45,473 and Standalone Institutions 12,002.
• 17 Universities (of which 14 are State Public Universities) and 4,470 Colleges are exclusively for women.
• Government Universities constituting 58.6% of total Universities, contribute 73.7% of total enrolment, Private Universities account for 26.3% of total enrolment.

Student Enrolment

• The total enrolment in higher education has increased to nearly 4.33 crore in 2021-22 from 4.14 crore in 2020-21.

• The estimated Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education for the age group 18-23 years in India is 28.4. 
• GER in HEIs is significantly low as compared to the global average of 40%.
• For Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, the GER is 25.9 and 21.2 respectively.
• Gender Parity Index (GPI), the ratio of female Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to male GER is 1.01 in 2021-22. 
  • GPI has continued to be above 1 since 2017-18 i.e., female GER continues to be more than male GER for fifth consecutive year.

• Undergraduate level enrolment is highest in Arts (34.2%), followed by science (14.8%), Commerce (13.3%) and Engineering & Technology (11.8%).

Infrastructure for Institution

• 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)

Representation of Foreign Students

• India hosts 46,878 foreign students, with Nepal leading at 28%, followed by Afghanistan at 6.7%.
• The highest number of foreign students are enrolled in Undergraduate courses, (74.8%) followed by Post Graduate courses (15.8%).

Related News

Accreditation System for HEIs

• Government plans to Overhaul Accreditation system for Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs).
• Recently, Ministry of Education has accepted the proposed reforms in the accreditation system of HEIs as recommended by Dr. Radhakrishnan Committee.
  • Committee was formed to strengthen Assessment & Accreditation of HEIs as envisioned in the National Education Policy, 2020.
  • Accreditation is assessment of quality of education.

• Key Recommendation of Dr. Radhakrishnan Committee
  • Composite Assessment System (CAS): Amalgamate Programme-Accreditation and Institutional-Accreditation.
  • Binary Accreditation: Either accredited or not accredited.
    • NAAC’s Executive Committee has decided to implement it in next four months.
    • No new applications will be accepted as per the present methodology thereafter.
  • Maturity-Based Graded Accreditation: Level 1 to Level 5 to encourage HEIs to evolve in-depth or in-breadth in disciplines.
    • NAAC has decided to implement it by December 2024.
  • One Nation One Data Platform: To ensure integrity and transparency in handing institutional data.
  • “Stakeholder validation”: To effectively integrate stakeholders as part of the accreditation and ranking process.
  • Other proposals: Enable choice based ranking system for diverse users, bring down periodicity of re-accreditation, etc.