Statistics and Trends in Higher Education in India: Growth and Challenges

Abstract

The higher education system in India has grown in a remarkable way, particularly in the post-independence period, to become one of the largest system of its kind in the world. However, the system has many issues of concern at present, like financing and management including access, equity and relevance, reorientation of programmes by laying emphasis on health consciousness, values and ethics and quality of higher education together with the assessment of institutions and their accreditation. These issues are important for the country, as it is now engaged in the use of higher education as a powerful tool to build a knowledge-based information society of the 21st Century. The higher education sphere in India grapples with a complex interplay of regulations, evolving developmental trends, and substantial challenges. Within regulations, pivotal policies like the National Education Policy, rules for foreign universities, and the National Research Foundation take centre stage. The rise of transformative technologies like AI also requires charting new developmental paths. The All-India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) is the main source of comprehensive statistics on the higher education scenario in the country. The All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) was initiated in 2011, during which data for the year 2010-11 was collected. This Survey was necessitated as none of the source of data on higher education was giving complete picture of higher education in the country. The Survey intended to cover all the Institutions in the country engaged in imparting higher education. For the first time all the major Stakeholders in higher education, such as University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education, Medical Council of India as well as State Governments participated in the data collection exercise. The current study aims to highlight the statistics, trends, growth and challenges in higher education system in India.