Chandigarh shines in All India Survey on Higher Education

Chandigarh has recorded the highest Gross Enrolment Ratio or GER for females in all categories of higher education at 68.8 per cent, according to the 2016-17 report of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) launched by Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar. However, the figure registered a drop of 1.6 per cent, compared to last year’s 70.4 per cent that was also the highest in this category.

GER Calculation:
The GER in higher education is calculated as total enrolment in higher education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage to the eligible official population in 18-23 years.

Reason for high GER in Chandigarh:
The high number of female enrolment in the city may be due to a large number of colleges for girls. Across India, according to the report, of the total number of colleges, only 9.3 per cent are exclusively for girls and 15 universities for women. In Chandigarh, there are three universities and 25 colleges that were part of the survey. The city’s total student strength stands at 1,00,849 with average enrolment per college at 1964. The city has 1,254 students enrolled in PhD with 625 female (49.8 %) and 629 males (50.2%). There are 143 students enrolled in MPhil — 87 females (60.8%) and 56 males (39.2%).

Highlights of survey:

• The overall GER of the country has increased from 24.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 25.2 per cent in 2016-17.
• The total number of universities and colleges surveyed were 864 and 40,026, respectively.
• The GER in Chandigarh is 56.1, followed by Tamilnadu at 46.9, Delhi at 45.3 and Puducherry at 43.1.
• Tamil Nadu has the highest GER in the country among states at 46.9 per cent, which is higher than the national average.
• Bihar’s poor show continues with just 14.9 per cent of its eligible population (in the age group of 18 to 23 years) pursuing higher education.
• Even as India aims at attaining a GER of 30 per cent by 2020, it is still behind countries such as China that boasts an enrolment ratio of 43.4 per cent.
   

By: Dr. Vivek Rana