ASHE 2020 

India has the third largest Higher Education system in the world, with and estimated 36.1 million students (51.4 percent male and 48.6 percent female) enrolled across 993 universities, 38,179 colleges and 10,725 stand-alone institutions in 2018-19. The country’s GER in Higher Education has registered a marginal increase from 25.2 percent in 2016-17 to 26.3 percent in 2018-19, as compared to reaching the target of 30 percent by 2020.

To achieve this target and enable transformational changes in the Indian Higher Education system, a number of initiatives have been proposed in the National Education Policy that was approved in July 2020. The policy states measures to move towards an outcome-based approach to education sector as well as providing students the requisite flexibilities in charting their careers. The intent of the policy is to align India’s education system to contemporary practices followed globally.