The participation of female students in higher education has lately made a very big jump in India as per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) which is the latest government report. The figure from AISHE depicts a clear picture that the current number of girl students in higher education colleges all over India is 43.3 million. The female enrolment was 41.4 million in 2020-21 and 34.2 million in 2014-15, which is in contrast to the male enrolment that was 25.4 million in 2020-21 and 20.5 million in 2014-15.
Though India has a long way to go to catch up with China, it is catching up fast and now it has become one of the largest higher education systems in the world after China. 36. The recent official data shows that there were 6 million students, or "college students", in higher education in 2022.
It is particularly noteworthy that the number of female students who belong to the most disadvantaged categories has increased dramatically, with the increase reaching almost 80% among the Scheduled Tribes category. Accordingly, the government describes this as “a remarkable” achievement.
The AISHE survey covered the enrolment of students at all the three levels: In all, there were 10,576 stand-alone institutions, 42,825 colleges, a few 1,162 universities and university level institutions among others, who participated in the survey, which gives us an opportunity to have a glimpse of the higher education system in India.
