According to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), a noticeable drop in the student enrolment in professional higher education courses has been seen for the year in 2018-19. A dramatic fall of 9 per cent in those pursuing engineering courses in B.Tech and M.Tech has led to an
overall dip in enrolment in professional courses, which has hit a four-year low.
From 2014-15 to 2018-19, the number of students enrolled in an M.Tech course fell by more than half from 2,89,311 to 1,35,500. B.Tech enrollment also declined, but not so substantially, seeing a fall of around 11 per cent from 42,54,919 to 37,70,949 in the same time period. However, some professional programmes like MBA, MBBS, B.Ed and LLB showed spike in enrollments. The number of students pursuing an MBA, for instance, grew from 4,09,432 in 2014-15 to 4,62,853 in 2018-19. Similarly, enrolment in B.Ed. jumped by almost 80%, from 6,57,194 in 2014-15 to 11,75,517 last year.
“The highest number of students are enrolled in Arts courses. The total number of students enrolled in Arts courses are 93,49,000, of which 46.96% are male and 53.03% are female. Science is the second major stream with 47,13,000 students, of which 49% are male and 51% are female. Commerce is the third major stream with 40,30,000 students enrolled. The share of male students enrolled in Commerce is 51.2%, whereas female enrolment is 48.8%,” the survey states. Out of the total 37.4 million students in higher education in 2018-19, 19.2 million are men, and 18.2 million are women. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) has increased over the last five years, from 0.92 in 2014-15 to 1 in 2018-19. GPI - the female:male ratio in higher education - measures progress towards gender equity.
According to AISHE 2018-19, the present Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is 26.3%, up from 25.8% in 2017-18. GER is a statistical measure for determining the number of students enrolled in undergraduate, postgraduate and research-level studies within the country and expressed as a percentage of the population in the 18-23 years age group. The government defines professional education as higher education programmes that are meant for students to acquire knowledge, skills, and competencies for a specific profession or a class of occupations. So, B.Tech, MBBS and MBA are professional programmes, to name a few. Since the academic year 2015-16, the number of students pursuing professional courses at the undergraduate level has decreased by 7,21,506 (roughly 9%). Enrolment in postgraduate professional programmes dropped by almost 32%, from 18,07,646 in 2015-16 to 12,36,404 in 2018-19.
The drastic dip comes at a time when student enrolment in higher education is at an all-time high. According to the survey, total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 37.4 million, as opposed to 36.6 million the year before. The waning popularity of professional degrees seems to have renewed interest in academics, which has benefited with a steady increase of almost 16,00,000 students in the last four years at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
