India HE report - 2014Latest stats from the Indian higher education

sector

Figures culled from various data sources as of November, 2014

The Indian education sector has been recognized as a “Sunrise Sector” for investment in the recent past. This recognition stems from the fact that the sector offers a huge untapped market in regulated and non-regulated segments due to low literacy rate, high concentration in urban areas and growing per capita income. The Government has also been proactively playing the role of facilitator in this sector.

201 Universities are privately managed. There are 42 Central Universities and 13 State Open Universities, 61 Institute of National Importance, 290 State Public University, 5 Institute under State Legislature Act, 38 Deemed University Government, 11 Deemed University Government Aided and 3 Others.

The top 7 States in terms of highest number of colleges in India are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

College density, i.e. the number of colleges per lakh eligible population (population in the age‐group 18‐23 years) varies from 6 in Bihar and Daman & Diu to 61 in Puducherry as compared to All India average of 25.  

In UTs of, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep, there are no Universities.

73% Colleges are privately managed; 58 % Private‐unaided and 14% Private‐aided. Andhra Pradesh has more than 80% Private‐unaided colleges, whereas, Bihar has only 6.3 % and Assam 9.5 % Private‐unaided colleges.                                                  

Total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 29.6 million with 16.3 million boys and 13.3 million girls. Girls constitute 45% of the total enrolment.  

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher education in India is 21.1, which is calculated for 18‐23 years of age group. GER for male population is 22.3 and for females it is 19.8. For Scheduled Castes, it is 15.1 and for Scheduled Tribes, it is 11.0 % as compared to the national GER of 21.1.

Snapshot

Source: MoHRD, GoI, Oct, 2014

Distance enrolment constitutes 11.9 % of the total enrolment in higher education, of which 43.9 % are female students.

About 80% students are enrolled in Undergraduate level Programme. 84058 students are enrolled in Ph.D. that is less than 0.3 % of the total student enrolment.

Uttar Pradesh comes at number one with the highest student enrolment followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Scheduled Casts students constitute 12.2 %

Snapshot

Source: MoHRD, GoI, Oct, 2014

Source: MoHRD, GoI, Oct, 2014

Ranking of higher education institutions (HEIs) appearing in SIR 2013 according to various indicators

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Percent total undergraduate engineering student intake by state groups, 2003 and 2013

Key proposals in the 12th Five Year Plan include:• A strengthened accreditation system along with more autonomy for states and universities • Improving the quality of teaching and doubling the number of faculty• Doubling of investment in R&D to 2% over five years• Significant investment in ICT in terms of infrastructure and content development• A shift to a credit-based and internationally recognised assessment system• Strengthening the capacity of existing institutions, establishing 20 ‘innovation and research universities’ and 50 centres of excellence, training and research in science, technology, social sciences and humanities• A review which could pave the way for for-profit private education in some areas• The introduction of schemes to target underprivileged and underrepresented students• Support for further internationalisation through a broad range of initiatives, including increased international research collaboration, international programmes for faculty development and attracting foreign faculty to India.

HE in the 12th 5 year plan

The supply-demand gap: India has a low rate of enrolment in higher education. There is enormous unmet demand for higher education. By 2020, the Indian government aims to achieve 30% gross enrolment, which will mean providing 40 million university places, an increase of 14 million in six years.

The low quality of teaching and learning: The system is beset by issues of quality in many of its institutions: a chronic shortage of faculty, poor quality teaching, outdated and rigid curricula and pedagogy, lack of accountability and quality assurance and separation of research and teaching.

Constraints on research capacity and innovation: With a very low level of PhD enrolment, India does not have enough high quality researchers; there are few opportunities for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary working, lack of early stage research experience; a weak ecosystem for innovation, and low levels of industry engagement.

Uneven growth and access to opportunity: Socially, India remains highly divided; access to higher education is uneven with multidimensional inequalities in enrolment across population groups and geographies.

Challenges

SWOT

Huge market size both in terms of number of students and annual revenues

A potential growth rate of 16% is expected over the next 5 years

Significant activity in terms of new foreign entrants and participation is expected to be witnessed in the years ahead

Accreditation is still not mandatory, however, reforms are in the pipeline to address this issue

Key attributes

Structure of the Indian HE sector

Regulatory environment

HE sector size and growth

There has been phenomenal growth of higher education in India since Independence. There were only 20 universities and 500 colleges at the time of independence. These numbers have increased by 26 times in the case of Universities and 66 times in the case of colleges. Some of the other factors acting as growth drivers to the Higher education sector are:-

A booming economy and growing middle class Low GER in higher education – the target Gross Enrolment Ratio of 30%

by 2020 would mean 24 mn new enrollments Increasing share of the services sector further emphasizes the role of

education in developing manpower to global standards Several reforms by the government including the Education Bill are on the

anvil to give a push to the education sector Foreign investment likely to come in with the passing of the Education

Reforms Bill

The story so far…