Female enrollment in higher education rose to 38.4% in 2022-23, a notable increase according to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report. The survey also revealed that 53.3% of students are enrolling in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) streams. The Ministry of Education released the findings based on data from 1,208 universities, 44,519 colleges, and 10,453 stand-alone institutions that responded to the survey.
Total student enrollment across higher education reached 4.46 crore in 2022-23. This represents an increase from 4.33 crore in the previous year, 2021-22. Compared to 2014-15, overall enrollment has seen a growth of 1.04 crore students.
The number of female students specifically climbed to 2.18 crore in 2022-23, up from 2.07 crore in 2021-22. Since 2014-15, female enrollment has increased by approximately 60.32 lakh.
Enrollment by Program
Undergraduate programs continue to attract the largest number of students. The Bachelor of Arts (BA) and BA (Hons) remain the most popular choices, with 1.4 crore students enrolled. The Bachelor of Science (B.Sc and B.Sc Hons) followed with 54 lakh enrollments. The Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com and B.Com Hons) ranked third with 43.1 lakh students.
Among professional courses, the Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) saw an enrollment of 26.9 lakh students.
At the postgraduate level, Master of Arts attracted the most students with 23.3 lakh enrollments. Master of Science (M.Sc) followed with 10.04 lakh students. Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Commerce (M.Com) together accounted for 13.3 lakh students.
STEM Stream Growth
Enrollment in STEM fields, encompassing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, shows a strong trend. A total of 99,75,841 students are enrolled in STEM courses across undergraduate, postgraduate, M.Phil., and PhD levels. Of these, 56,45,364 are male students and 43,30,477 are female students.
The Science stream alone recorded 56,87,510 enrollments. Within the Science stream, 53.3% of students are female. Undergraduate Science programs have 47,62,989 students, with 52.0% being female. Postgraduate Science programs show 60.9% female enrollment from 8,69,848 students. At the PhD level in Science, over 51.8% of the 54,174 students are female.
Institutional Data
The AISHE report for 2022-23 registered 1,213 universities and university-level institutions. Of these, 46,624 were colleges and 12,543 were stand-alone institutions. The number of universities has grown since 2014-15, with 19 universities now exclusively for women, up from 11 in 2014-15.
The total number of registered colleges also increased from 38,498 in 2014-15 to 46,624 in 2022-23. Responding institutions included 20.8% government colleges, 13.1% private aided colleges, and 66.06% private unaided colleges. Women's colleges constituted 10.5% of the responding institutions.
Faculty and Staff
In 2022-23, the total number of faculty members in higher education was 16.64 lakh. Male faculty comprised 55.7% of this total. The number of female faculty members reached 7.37 lakh, an increase from 5.69 lakh in 2014-15.
The ratio of female faculty per 100 male faculty improved marginally, standing at 79 in 2022-23, up from 77 in 2021-22. The pupil-teacher ratio in regular mode for universities and colleges was 24, and 19 for universities and their constituent units.
