Less women,more men opt for higher edu

86 enrolment at graduate level in Indias higher edu inst but only 12 complete post graduation.

While there is 86 per cent enrolment at graduate level in the countrys higher education institutions,only 12 per cent of these students go on to complete their post graduation. And a mere one per cent opt for further research. This latest analysis Higher Education data for 2010-11 done by the University Grants Commission has revealed that women continue to opt for teaching and medicine courses and they are still far behind men in taking up higher studies.

The choice of subjects that women take up is still traditional,and the only discipline where they are ahead of men is Education. Also,women largely stay away from engineering and technology. Medicine,on the other hand,is one stream that attracts both men and women in almost equal numbers with the latter marginally ahead. In Arts,Science,Commerce,Law and almost all other disciplines women are far behind men,the data shows.

Enrollment figures show that Arts subjects attract 36.39 per cent students,Science draws 18.4 per cent,and 17 per cent students opt for Commerce. Engineering and technology attract 16.86 per cent students. The huge shortage of teachers is explained when one considers that Education draws only 3.36 per cent students,most of them women. Medicine hardly does any better with 3.85 per cent enrollment.

As far as doctorates are concerned,34 per cent of the doctorate degrees 3,742 awarded in 2009-10 were from Science and 31 per cent 3,490 from Arts. Only 1,000 PhDs were awarded in Engineering,767 in Commerce and Management,573 in Agriculture,469 in Education,and 337 in Medicine. Information Science,Fine Arts,Journalism and Mass Communication,Physical Education,Social Work faculties together awarded 500 PhDs.

As in 2010-11,total student enrollment in higher education is 169.76 lakh and total faculty strength 8.17 lakh.

The maximum student enrollment in 2010-11 was seen in Uttar Pradesh,followed by Maharashtra,Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

As on December 2011,there are 297 state,43 Central,100 private,and 129 deemed universities,besides 65 institutes of national importance. Tamil Nadu and UP have the maximum number of university-level institutes. As on December 2011,these states had set up 59 and 58 such institutes,respectively. On the other hand,there are only 28 varsities in Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra has the maximum number of colleges at 4,631,and Andhra Pradesh has 4,066 colleges.

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Expenditure on education hovers around 3.8 per cent of the GDP as in 2009-10 with 1.25 per cent of the GDP allocated to higher education. The figure is far below the desired level of 6 per cent of GDP.