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EDUCATION
Decennial growth rate of stage-wise enrolment
(1950-51 to 1989-90)
Period Undergraduate
Post-graduate
Research
1950-51 to 1960-61 12.5
11.4
13.0
1960-61 to 1970-71 14.0
10.6
10.6
1970-71 to 1980-81 3.2
5.4
9.2
1980-81 to 1989-90 4.7
4.0
3.8
The Central Government discharges its duty of co-ordinating
and establishing standards in higher education (a subject which
figures in the Union list) through the University Grants Commission
set up in 1953 . There are 12 Central universities - Aligarh Muslim
University, Aligarh; University of Delhi, Delhi; University of
Hyderabad, Hyderabad; Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi;
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Indira Gandhi Open University,
New Delhi; North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong; Viswabharati,
Shantiniketan; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; Pondicherry
University; Assam Central University and Nagaland Central
University.
The five Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur,
Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi conduct undergraduate
programmes as well as Master's courses and PhD programmes in
Engineering, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences.
There are 17 Regional Engineering Colleges set up by the
Central Government, one in each of the major states. There are 180
engineering colleges and 425 polytechnics offering diplomas with an
annual intake of 34,000 and 65,000 respectively.
Business administration is a relatively new discipline in India.
The four Indian Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad, Calcutta,
Bangalore and Lucknow together with the Xavier Labour Relations
Institute at Kharagpur offer a two-year course leading to a diploma.
About 75 per cent of the total expenditure on universities and
colleges is met by the Central and State Governments; with the
States contributing more than 80 per cent of the total expenditure.
The remaining portion is financed from fees, endowments and
philanthropic contributions. The UGC which is mainly responsible
for maintenance of standards of higher education and co-ordination
of university activities provides funds for the maintenance and
development of Central universities and, to some extent, the
Deemed
Universities,
also.
The
Institutions
of
National
Importance, like the IITs are directly funded by the Department of
Education of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
There has been a phenomenal growth in the size of the system
of higher education since Independence. The number of universities
shot up from 28 in 1950-51 to 144 in 1988-89. The total number of
universities all over the country now is 211. In addition there are
now 27 institutions which are classified as "Deemed to be
universities". Along with the increase in the number of universities
the number of affiliated and constituent colleges has also increased
from 695 in 1950-51 to 6,912 in 1988-89. Enrolment in higher
education has risen from 1,74,000 in 1950-51 to 40,00,000 in 1988-
89. The annual compounded growth rate in enrolment from 1950-51
to 1960-61 was 12.4 and from 1960-61 to 1970-71 it was 13.4. The
growth rate from 1970-71 to 1980-81 declined to 3.5. From 1980-81
to 1988-89 it was 4.7. The significantly lower rates during the
Seventies and Eighties may be due to the adoption of the 10+2+3
pattern of education. Corrective mechanisms were set in motion
during the Fourth Plan period when post-graduate and research
sectors were given higher priority.
In keeping with the rapid expansion in the number of
institutions and the size of enrolment, there has been an expansion
in the strength of the faculty. The number of teachers in higher
education is nearly 2,40,000. The number of teachers in affiliated
colleges has grown at a faster rate than that of the faculty in
HIGHER EDUCATION
university departments or colleges because of the large number of
affiliated colleges coming up in the private sector. There has been a
mismatch between enrolment and faculty growth rates. While the
enrolment in 1985-89 was 22 times that of 1950-51 the
corresponding increase in teaching staff was only 11 times. As
against an average growth rate of 8.5 per cent per annum for
enrolment, the corresponding figure for faculty size was only 6.5 per
cent. Consequently, the number of students per teacher in an
affiliated college increased 1.5 times from 12 in 1964 to 17 in 1988.
The tertiary level of education in India is divided into a three-year
undergraduate stage, a two-year post-graduate stage and three-
year plus stage of research programmes leading to a doctoral
degree.
The share of undergraduates to total enrolment in 1950-51 was
83.7 per cent, the post-graduate component was 11.5 per cent and
research was 0.83 per cent. In 1988-89, the respective figures were
88 per cent, 9.5 and 1.10. Quantitatively enrolment at the
undergraduate level went up 24 times from 145,389 in 1950-51 to
34,74,171 while post-graduate enrolment increased by 18 times
from 20,000 in 1950-51 to 3,80,000 in 1988-89. Enrolment at the
research level during this period went up thirty times from 1,400 to
43,400.
The above table indicates the sharp drop in the undergraduate
level from the highpoint of 14.0 per cent it had reached in the Sixties,
the period of the college boom and the stabilisation of the growth
rate around 4 per cent at all the three stages during the Eighties.
Coming to the faculty-wise enrolment in higher education, the
Arts faculty occupies a dominant position in 1988-89 with 40.3 per
cent, followed by Commerce with 21.5 per cent and Science 19.7 per
cent. Other figures are Engineering Technology 4.6, Medicine 3.6,
Education 2.3, Agriculture 1.3, Law 5.8 and Veterinary Sciences 0.3.
After occupying the third position behind Arts and Science till 1978-
79, Commerce moved to the second place in 1979-80 and has held
that position since then. The low level of enrolment in the
agricultural and veterinary sciences is a distressing feature of the
higher education scene in view of the dominant position of
agriculture in the Indian economy and the fact that India has the
largest cattle population in the world.
"Considering the faculty-wise distribution and the growth of
enrolment of higher education as a whole the conclusion is
inescapable that even after four decades of planned development,
the distortions introduced during colonial times have continued to
persist even though significant changes have taken place in the
structure of the economy and the composition of the GNP. This
disequilibrium is a matter of serious concern for policymakers and
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