Higher education enrolment rises by over 1 crore since 2014: Govt’s AISHE report

The enrolment in higher education increased by over 1.08 crore since 2014, with 42 per cent increase in female enrolment, according to the Central Government’s AISHE report.

The Ministry of Education on Wednesday released the Reports of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

The AISHE collects detailed information from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the country through a web-based Data Capture Format (DCF). Institutions upload data on student enrolment, faculty and staff, infrastructure, examination results, etc., on the AISHE portal.

AISHE serves as the primary source of official statistics on higher education in India and provides critical insights for policy formulation, planning and monitoring of the sector.

The participation of HEIs in 2022-23 was 56,180 out of 60,380 HEIs registered and 59,533 out of 64,756 registered HEIs in 2023-24. “The enrolment in higher education has been continuously increasing from 3.42 crore in 2014-15 to 4.46 crore in 2022-23 and 4.50 crore in 2023-24 (i.e. 31.5 per cent increase since 2014-15),” the report said.

“It is a commendable increase in female enrolment in higher education from 1.57 crore in 2014-15 to 2.18 crore in 2022-23 and 2.24 crore in 2023-24 (42.2 pc increase since 2014-15),” it added.

The enrolment of SC students has increased to 69.72 lakh in 2023-24 from 46.07 lakh in 2014-15 (an increase of 51.4 per cent since 2014-15).

“The enrolment of ST students has increased to 28.83 lakh in 2023-24 from 16.41 lakh in 2014-15 (an increase of 75.7 per cent since 2014-15). Similarly, the enrolment of Other Backward Classes (OBC) students has increased to 1.80 crore in 2023-24 from 1.13 crore in 2014-15 (60.2 per cent increase),” it added.

STEM enrolment has risen significantly over the past decade, from 91.5 lakh in 2014-15 to 1.02 crore in 2023-24, reflecting the growing emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in the country.

“The total number of faculty increased to 17.32 lakh in 2023-24, of which 55.1 pc are male and 44.9 per cent are female. The female faculty strength has increased from 5.69 lakh in 2014-15 to 7.37 lakh in 2022-23 and further to 7.78 lakh in 2023-24,” it said.