In Chandigarh, there are three universities and 25 colleges that were part of the survey.
Chandigarh has recorded the highest Gross Enrolment Ratio or GER for females in all categories of higher education at 68.8 per cent, according to the 2016-17 report of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) launched by Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday.
However, the figure registered a drop of 1.6 per cent, compared to last year’s 70.4 per cent that was also the highest in this category. The GER is calculated for 18 to 23 years of age group.
The high number of female enrolment in the city may be due to a large number of colleges for girls. Across India, according to the report, of the total number of colleges, only 9.3 per cent are exclusively for girls and 15 universities for women. The total number of universities and colleges surveyed were 864 and 40,026, respectively.
In Chandigarh, there are three universities and 25 colleges that were part of the survey. The city’s total student strength stands at 1,00,849 with average enrolment per college at 1964.
The report also stated that the overall GER of the country has increased from 24.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 25.2 per cent in 2016-17. Tamil Nadu has the highest GER in the country at 46.9 per cent, which is higher than the national average. Bihar’s poor show continues with just 14.9 per cent of its eligible population (in the age group of 18 to 23 years) pursuing higher education.
Even as India aims at attaining a GER of 30 per cent by 2020, it is still behind countries such as China that boasts an
enrolment ratio of 43.4 per cent. However, the student enrolment has witnessed an overall growth by 18.3 per cent in the last five years.