Quality of higher education under a cloud

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as Kerala has the highest enrollment rate in schools, it lags in terms of gross enrollment ratio of students in higher education sector compared to its neighbouring states, which in turn poses a serious question on the quality of higher education, said the economic review report released on Thursday
As per the all-India survey on higher education conducted by the ministry of human resources development, gross enrollment in higher education was only 30.8% in 2015-16. “Though there may be under estimation of the percentage owing to non-participation of a large number of colleges in the survey, many students in Kerala go to other states for higher education. Students coming to Kerala from outside is negligible,” the report said
The report said that higher education in Kerala should be made capable of meeting the increasing opportunities generated by the market. For meeting the needs, state must introduce various industry-based and innovative courses at higher education level.
“In order to ensure the quality of higher education, serious and focused attempts must be made to ensure that the number of arts and science colleges with accreditation of National Assessment and Accreditation Council and engineering colleges with accreditation of National Board of Accreditation are increased. Likewise, the possibility of collaboration with foreign universities and nationally renowned institutions can be explored,” it stated.
Students enrolled in various arts and science colleges (excluding unaided colleges) under the four general universities in Kerala in 2018-19 was 3.28 lakh. Of this, 2.2 lakh (68%) were girls. Of the total students enrolled for degree courses, 47.2% enrolled for BA courses, 36.6% enrolled for BSc and 16.2% for BCom. Girls constituted 68% of the total enrollment for degree courses. Gender-wise distribution of enrollment reveals boys’ proportion in BCom course was higher than BSc and BA.