Number of women in higher education up 45% in 8 years

The number of women enrolling for higher education in India has gone up by 45 per cent to 17.4 million in 2017-18 from 12 million in 2010-11, according a survey report released on Friday.

While the percentage of women students in Ph.D, M.Phil and PG was less than half in 2010-11, female students outnumbered male students for M.Phil and PG in 2017-18, said the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) released by Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.

In 2010-11, the percentages of women students for Ph.D, M.Phil and PG were 38.3, 49.9 and 44.5 per cent, respectively. Last year, 42.6 per cent Ph.D students, 64 per cent M.Phil students and 53.8 per cent of PG students were women.

 

"Total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 36.6 million, with 19.2 million boys and 17.4 million girls. Girls constitute 47.6 per cent of the total enrolment," the survey report for 2017-18 said.

However, the report added: "Share of female students is lowest in institutions of national importance, followed by state private open universities and deemed universities (government)."

In terms of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), which is the ratio of actual students enrolled to the population that could have enrolled (calculated for 18-23 years of age group), it has gone up from 19.4 per cent in 2010-11 to 25.8 per cent in 2017-18 in higher education.

GER for male population is 26.3 per cent and for females, it is 25.4 per cent. For Scheduled Castes, it is 21.8 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes, it is 15.9 per cent as compared to the national GER of 25.8 per cent, the report said.

The survey further said the total number of teachers is 12,84,755, out of which about 58.0 per cent are male teachers and 42.0 per cent are female. At all-India level, there are merely 72 female teachers per 100 male teachers.

College density, which is the number of colleges per lakh eligible population (population in the age-group 18-23 years), varies from seven in Bihar to 51 in Karnataka and Telangana as compared to all-India average of 28.

Bangalore Urban district tops in terms of number of colleges with 893 colleges, followed by Jaipur with 558 colleges. Top 50 districts have about 32.6 per cent of colleges, the survey revealed.

Further, of the total 12,84,755 teachers in higher education of the country, 57 per cent are from the general category, 8.6 per cent Scheduled Castes and 2.3 per cent from Scheduled Tribes, whereas the University Grants Commission (UGC) mandates reservation of 15 per cent posts for SCs and 7.5 per cent for STs.

Ironically, the number of vacant teaching posts are higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. About 30 per cent teaching positions are vacant in colleges located in urban areas, whereas the corresponding figure for rural areas stands at 20 per cent, the survey said.

--IANS

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