Boys outnumber girls in higher education enrolment

NEW DELHI:Though girl enrolment in higher education is improving steadily, boys still outnumber girls in enrolment across most levels. The All-India Survey of Higher Education published by the UGC last week shows the ratio of boys is higher than girls at almost every level of education, except M Phil, post graduate and certificate courses

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 23

Though girl enrolment in higher education is improving steadily, boys still outnumber girls in enrolment across most levels.

The All-India Survey of Higher Education published by the UGC last week shows the ratio of boys is higher than girls at almost every level of education, except M Phil, post graduate and certificate courses.

In broader terms, the student enrolment at the undergraduate level has 51 per cent boys and 49 per cent girls. The data reveals diploma too has a skewed gender distribution, with 66.8 per cent boys and 33.2 per cent girls. At the level of research streams also, male students outnumber females. In PhD courses across the country, there are 56.18 per cent boys and 43.82 per cent girls.

Integrated courses levels tell the same story of absence of gender parity with 57.5 per cent male students and 42.50 per cent females. The PG diploma level shows a student enrolment of 54.09 per cent for males and 45.91 per cent for females.

The relatively higher share of male enrolment than females is also seen across the levels in the most of the states covered by the survey.

Another revealing facet of the survey 2018-2019 is the skewed distribution of colleges in the country, with vast tracts still underserved. Of 39,931 colleges in the country, the top 10 districts house 10 per cent colleges while the top 50 districts house 32.2 per cent of all colleges.

Top 10 districts in college concentration are Bengaluru (Urban) which has 880 colleges followed by Jaipur with 566, Hyderabad 463, Pune 450, Prayagraj 343, Rangareddy 332, Nagpur 313, Mumbai 305, Guntur 298 and Bhopal 280.

There is a vast variance even in the college density defined as the number of colleges per lakh eligible population (aged 18 to 23 years). The density is seven colleges per one lakh eligible people in Bihar to 53 in Karnataka, the all India average being 28. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are the top states when it comes to college concentration.

39,931 colleges

10,725 institutions

993 universities

47,427 foreign students

14,16,299 teachers