Higher education to get 10 m more seats during XII Plan
Here’s another piece of encouraging information for students in Classes X and XII – and on the threshold of higher education. A total of ten million more seats will be created in various faculties of higher education during the XII Five-Year Plan period (2012-2017). Planning Commission Member Dr. Narendra Jadhav says this was being done to improve India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) from the present 18 per cent, which is must less than the world average of 27 per cent. Dr. Jadhav said education was a vital factor to make India a world economic power and achieve a growth rate of 9 per cent during the XII Plan period.
As many as 20 million students enrol for higher education in the country every year, besides another 4 million who enrol in the distance mode of learning. These are impressive figures in absolute terms, but very low in relative terms, GER being one instance. The government also plans to increase the number of universities from the existing 644 to 1,500 over the next five years as part of the effort to improve GER. Of these 293 are state universities, which account for 89 per cent of all students undergoing higher education. Incidentally, India has the largest higher education system in the world, with 644 universities and 31,023 colleges.
