Higher education in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
India has a publicly funded higher education system that is the third largest in the world.[1] The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission, which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state.[2] Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 15 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission (UGC).[3]
As per the latest 2011 Census, about 8.15% (98.615 million)[citation needed] of Indians are graduates, with Union Territories of Chandigarh and Delhi topping the list with 24.65% and 22.56% of their population being graduates respectively.[4] Indian higher education system has expanded at a fast pace by adding nearly 20,000 colleges and more than 8 million students in a decade from 2000–01 to 2010–11.[5][2]
As of 2020[update], India has over 1000 universities, with a break up of 54 central universities, 416 state universities, 125 deemed universities, 361 state private universities and 159 Institutes of National Importance which include AIIMS, IIMs, IIITs, IISERs, IITs and NITs among others.[6][2][7][8][9][10][11] Other institutions include 52,627 colleges as government degree colleges, private colleges, standalone institutes and post-graduate research institutions, functioning under these universities as reported by the MHRD in 2020.[12] Colleges may be Autonomous, i.e. empowered to examine their own degrees, up to PhD level in some cases, or non-autonomous, in which case their examinations are under the supervision of the university to which they are affiliated; in either case, however, degrees are awarded in the name of the university rather than the college.
The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology.[13] Indian educational institutions by 2004 consisted of many technology institutes.[14] Distance learning and open education is also a feature of the Indian higher education system, and is looked after by the Distance Education Council.[14] Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is the largest university in the world by number of students, having approximately 3.5 million students across the globe.[15][16][17]
Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc),Indian Agricultural Research Institute , Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Institute of Good Manufacturing Practices India (IGMPI), University of Delhi (DU), University of Calcutta (CU), University of Madras, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education.[14][18][19][20]