Women outnumber men in higher education, enrolment hits record 2.24 crore: AISHE report
Female enrolment in higher education has reached a record 2.24 crore, with the gender parity index at 1.08 for a seventh straight year, the latest AISHE report says.
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The latest report of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), released by the Union Ministry of Education, carries good news for girls in the country's higher education. The report also includes the Gender Parity Index (GPI). According to the report, women's admissions in higher education have recorded a sharp increase of 42.2 per cent. The figures show that girls have overtaken boys in college and university enrolment.
The GPI score in the report is 1.08. In education, a GPI above 1.0 means there are more girls than boys in higher education. Notably, the index has remained above 1.0 for the seventh consecutive year in the country.
In numbers, the change is large. In 2014-15, only 1.57 crore girls were enrolled in higher education. This has now risen to a record 2.24 crore. In the past decade, about 67 lakh additional girls have taken admission in colleges and universities. Women's share in total higher education enrolment is now about 49.7 per cent, the highest ever.
Girls are also ahead in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). The overall GER in higher education for those aged 18 to 23 years has reached 30. Separately, the GER for men stands at 28.9 per cent, while that for women is 31.2 per cent.
The number of girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses has also risen rapidly. Total admissions in STEM courses in the country have crossed 1.02 crore, and girls account for 44 per cent of them.
The picture on the teaching side has also improved. According to the report, higher education institutions in the country have a total of 17.32 lakh teachers, of whom women make up 44.9 per cent.
