ST enrolments in higher education rise by 47%, OBC enrolment by 31%: Government survey

The growth in enrolments of Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in higher education between 2014-15 and 2020-21 has been 47%, while OBC enrolments have increased by 31.67% in the same period. These are some of the key findings of the All India Survey on Higher Education 2020-21 (AISHE) conducted by the Ministry of Education. Other AISHE findings include:

* Enrolment of ST students has increased to 24.1 lakh in 2020-21 from 21.6 lakh in 2019-20. This increase (11.9%) is significantly higher than the increase recorded in the previous year (4.3%). Notably, overall increase in ST Student enrolment since 2014-15 is 47%.

* Enrolment of students from Other Backward Classes has increased to about 1.48 crore in 2020-21 from 1.42 crore in 2019-20. Overall increase in OBC Student enrolment since 2014-15 is 31.67%.    

* Total enrolment in higher education has increased to nearly 4.13 crore in 2020-21 from 3.85 crore in 2019-20 (an increase of 28.80 Lakh).

* Of the 4.13 crore students enrolled in 2020-21, 14.2% belong to Scheduled Castes, 5.8% belong to Scheduled Tribes, 35.8% are from Other Backward Classes and remaining 44.2% students are from other communities.

* The annual rate of increase in enrolment has also shown an improvement over the years. The increase in enrolment in 2020-21 over 2019-20 is 7.4%, which was 3% during 2019-20 and 2.7% during 2018-19. Further, overall increase in enrolment since 2014-15 is 20.9%.

* Government Universities constituting 59.1% of total Universities contribute 73.1% of total enrolment, Deemed Universities - Government Aided constituting 0.9% of total Universities account for 0.6% enrolment, whereas the 40% Private Universities account for only 26.3% of total enrolment. 

* Based on actual response at undergraduate level, enrollment is highest in Arts (33.5%), followed by Science (15.5%), Commerce (13.9%) and Engineering & Technology (11.9%)

The AISHE is an annual survey conducted since 2010-11. For the 2020-21 iteration, a total of 1,099 Universities, 41,600 colleges and 10,308 stand alone institutions participated via an online data collection process.

Please click here to read the survey report