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Higher education enrolment hits 45 million, women gain ground in STEM: AISHE report
India’s higher education enrolment reached a record 45 million in 2023-24, while women’s participation in STEM programmes rose to 44%, AISHE data showed.
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India’s higher education enrolment touched a record 45 million in 2023-24, with women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes continuing to rise, according to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) reports released by the Union ministry of education on Wednesday.
AISHE is the ministry’s annual survey of higher education institutions that compiles official data on enrolment, teachers, infrastructure and finances to support policy planning and monitor the sector.
The ministry simultaneously released the AISHE reports for 2022-23 and 2023-24. The previous report, for 2021-22, was published on December 31, 2022, making these the first survey reports to be released since then.
The survey showed that total enrolment in higher education increased from 44.6 million in 2022-23 to 45 million in 2023-24, up from 34.2 million in 2014-15 — a 31.5% increase over the decade. Female enrolment grew even faster, rising from 15.7 million in 2014-15 to 22.4 million in 2023-24, an increase of 42.2%.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) — the proportion of people aged 18-23 enrolled in higher education — reached 30 in 2023-24, up from 29.5 in 2022-23 and 23.7 in 2014-15. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 targets raising the higher education GER to 50% by 2035.
Female GER increased from 22.9 to 31.2 over the same period, while the Gender Parity Index — which compares female and male GERs — stood at 1.08 in 2023-24 and has remained above 1.0 for the seventh consecutive year, indicating that women continue to outnumber men in higher education participation.
The survey also recorded steady gains among historically underrepresented communities. Scheduled Caste (SC) enrolment increased from 4.61 million in 2014-15 to 6.64 million in 2022-23 and 6.97 million in 2023-24, while Scheduled Tribe (ST) enrolment rose from 1.64 million in 2014-15 to 2.69 million in 2022-23 and 2.88 million in 2023-24.
Enrolment of Other Backward Classes (OBC) increased from 11.3 million in 2014-15 to 17.1 million in 2022-23 and 18 million in 2023-24. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for SC students improved from 18.9 in 2014-15 to 26.5 in 2022-23 and 27.8 in 2023-24, while that for ST students rose from 13.5 in 2014-15 to 21.2 in 2022-23 and 22.8 in 2023-24.
The total Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) enrolment across undergraduate, postgraduate, integrated, MPhil and PhD programmes increased from 9.15 million in 2014-15 to 10.19 million in 2023-24. The proportion of women in STEM also improved steadily, from 38.4% to 44% over the decade. Of the 10.19 million students enrolled in STEM programmes in 2023-24, about 5.71 million are men and 4.48 million are women.
Science accounted for 5.56 million students across all levels, with women making up 54.6% of enrolment. Women also constituted 53.4% of undergraduate science students, 61.4% of postgraduate students and 53.4% of PhD scholars in the discipline.
Engineering and technology enrolled 4.63 million students across all levels, with computer engineering attracting the highest enrolment of 1.08 million students, followed by 724,000 in electronics engineering and 604,000 in mechanical engineering.
At the undergraduate level, Arts continued to remain the largest discipline with 11 million students, 53.9% of whom were women. Science followed with 4.57 million students, while Engineering and Technology enrolled 4.39 million students, although women accounted for only 31.1% of enrolment in the discipline. Commerce had 4.08 million students, Medical Science 2.13 million and Education 1.78 million, where women constituted 64.2% of enrolment — the highest among major disciplines.
At the postgraduate level, Social Science recorded the highest enrolment with 1.06 million students, followed closely by Management with 1.04 million and Science with 0.86 million. Women accounted for nearly three-fifths of postgraduate enrolment in Social Science and more than three-fifths in Science.
The report also showed growth in teaching strength. The total number of faculty members increased to 1.732 million in 2023-24 from 1.662 million a year earlier. Women accounted for 778,000 faculty members, up from 569,000 in 2014-15, while the number of female teachers rose to 82 for every 100 male teachers.
The AISHE also recorded higher institutional participation over the decade. The number of higher education institutions participating in AISHE increased from 42,819 in 2014-15 to 56,180 in 2022-23 and 59,533 in 2023-24.
