Eleventh Five Year Plan

22 Eleventh Five Year Plan20, of colleges around 500 and the total enrolment wasless than 1.0 lakh. By the end of the Tenth Plan, theIndian higher education system has grown into oneof the largest in the world with 378 universities, 18064colleges, a faculty strength of 4.92 lakh, and anestimated enrolment of 140 lakh students. The highereducation institutions include 23 Central universities(CU), 216 State universities, 110 deemed universities,11 private universities, and 33 institutions of nationalimportance established through central legislationand another 5 institutions established through Statelegislations.1.3.2 Despite the expansion that has occurred, it isevident that the system is under stress to provide asufficient volume of skilled human power, which isequipped with the required knowledge and technicalskills to cater to the demands of the economy. The acceleratedgrowth of our economy has already createdshortages of high-quality technical manpower. Unlikethe developed countries, where the young working agepopulation is fast shrinking with higher dependencyratios, India has a demographic advantage with about70% of the population below the age of 35 years. Butthis advantage can only be realised if we expandopportunities for our youth on a massive scale and indiverse fields of basic science, engineering and technology,health care, architecture, management, etc. Thisis possible only if we initiate rapid expansion alongwith long overdue reforms in the higher, technical, andprofessional education sectors.1.3.3 Expansion, inclusion, and rapid improvementin quality throughout the higher and technical educationsystem by enhancing public spending, encouragingprivate initiatives, and initiating the long overduemajor institutional and policy reforms will form thecore of the Eleventh Plan effort. Our long-term goal isto set India as a nation in which all those who aspiregood quality higher education can access it, irrespectiveof their paying capacity.HIGHER EDUCATION: REVIEW OF THE TENTH PLANExpansion1.3.4 The focus of the Tenth Plan was on primaryeducation with an expenditure of over Rs 50000 crore,whereas, the expenditure on university and highereducation was below Rs 8000 crore. The growth ofhigher education system during the Tenth Plan is givenin Table 1.3.1.TABLE 1.3.1Growth of Higher Education SystemNo. of Institutions 2002 2007Universities 201 378Colleges 12342 18064NAAC Accredited:(i) Universities 61 140(ii) Colleges 198 3492Enrolment(lakh) 75 140Source: UGC-NAAC.1.3.5 Our GER of around 11% is very low comparedto the world average of 23.2%, 36.5% for countries intransition, 54.6% for the developed countries, and 22%for Asian countries. Further, with high disparities(Table 1.3.2), inclusive education has been an elusivetarget. 370 districts with GER less than the nationalaverage need enrolment drives and rapid expansionof higher education institutions.DisparitiesTABLE 1.3.2Disparities in GER, 2004–05GERArea:(i) Rural 6.70(ii) Urban 19.90Gender:(i) Male 12.40(ii) Female 9.10Social:(i) SCs 6.57(ii) STs 6.52(iii) OBCs 8.77(iv) Others 17.22ALL 11.00Source: UGC.1.3.6 We should aim to increase the GER to 21% bythe end of the Twelfth Plan with an interim target of15% by 2011–12. To achieve this, the enrolments in universities/collegesneed to be substantially raised at anannual rate of 8.9% to reach 21 million by 2011–12.