Govt aiming at raising student enrolment to 45 million:Sibal

Government is aiming at expansion of gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 30% with 40-45 million students in the next 10 years, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said on Saturday.

Government is aiming at expansion of gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 30% with 40-45 million students in the next 10 years, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said on Saturday.

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Addressing the IGNOU convocation through videoconferencing, the minister said the government's endeavour is to raise the GER in the country to the global average of 30%.

"I am setting sights to raise it to the global average by 2020, which by then will be around 30%. It will mean that the enrolment should expand to 40-45 million from the mere 13 million today," he said.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor V N Rajasekharan Pillai said the University has set a target of enrolling seven million students with the majority from disadvantaged section in the next five years.

He said there was growing demand for higher education from a rising lower-middle class and from the women due to which distance education is increasingly becoming popular.

"We are targeting an enrolment of at least seven million students with a majority from the disadvantaged sections and locations, during the next five years," Pillai said, adding IGNOU has identified 120 districts with gross enrolment ratio (GER) ranging between 3 to and 7 per cent to tap the prospective learners in the age group of 18-23 years.

As many as 78 students received gold medals this year. In all, 44,926 bachelor's degree, 20,775 Master's degree, 59,042 diplomas, 90,618 certificates and 3 Ph.Ds were awarded to students during the ceremony with 10 gold medallists from Delhi and four cash award recipients.