Kerala’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education has witnessed a considerable fall, according to the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) 2021-22. In what appears to be a validation of claims suggesting an incremental increase in student migration from the State, the GER decreased from 43.2% (in the AISHE 2020-21) to 41.3%. The GER among females and males stood at 49% (previously 52.3%) and 34.1% (34.5%) respectively.
Kerala also fell one rung to become the seventh highest among States and Union Territories in this regard. The national average of GER among the age group of 18–23 grew to 28.4% from 27.3% previously.
The development has come as a blow for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government that has often spot-lit the steady growth of GER in the State as an outcome of focused efforts being made to reform the sector.
UGC restrictions
Among other factors, policy analysts suggested the restrictions imposed on regular universities by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in conducting distance education programmes have adversely affected enrolment. There have also been calls to assess the number of Keralite students studying in the other States through a pan-India survey like the AISHE.
Going by the enrollment statistics, there were 13,04,445 students pursuing higher education at various levels including PhD, MPhil, postgraduate, undergraduate, PG diploma, diploma, certificate and integrated courses during the survey. These included 7,49,873 female and 5,54,572 male students to record a gender parity index of 1.41.
The 2020-21 edition of AISHE had recorded 13,64,536 students in the higher education sector. While 10,15,085 students pursued education under the regular mode in the AISHE 2021-22, 2,69,321 others opted for distance education courses. Notably, 3,58,799 students had pursued distance education courses during the previous year.
College density
The State had a college density (number of colleges per lakh eligible population in the age group 18-23) of 46 to be ranked fifth highest in the country, while the national average was 30. The number of foreign students pursuing various programmes increased significantly from 266 to 509. Among them, 378 students pursued undergraduate courses, 79 postgraduate courses and 39 PhD.
