There are only 30 colleges for every one lakh Indian citizens, said the All India Survey on Higher Education's (AISHE) latest report which was unveiled by Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on June 10. While Karnataka (59), Telangana (53) and Andhra Pradesh (51) have a very high density of colleges, other major states do not fare so well.
Major states and UTs, including Delhi, Bihar and West Bengal have deplorable figures when it comes to the density of the colleges. While Delhi, the national capital has only eight colleges per lakh population, Bihar, one of the bigger states, stands at the bottom of the list with 7 colleges per lakh citizens with Jharkhand and West Bengal not so far behind with 8 and 13 respectively. "College density, i.e., the number of colleges per lakh eligible population (population in the age-group 18-23 years) varies from 7 in Bihar to 59 in Karnataka as compared to All India average of 30," said the report.
It does not take a genius to figure out that this would put a lot of pressure on the colleges and the stats confirm that. In Bihar, each college sees an average of 1703 students getting admitted to each college per year. Chandigarh has 2022 students getting admitted to each college every year. Jharkhand (1938), West Bengal (1179), Delhi (1620), Tripura (1175), Meghalaya (1105) and Manipur (1056) are a few states with very high average enrolment.
If we consider the sheer number of colleges, the state with the largest area wins. And that's the statistic in focus. "In Uttar Pradesh, there are 7788 colleges and for every one lakh population, there are 31 colleges. Similarly, Maharashtra comes second with 4494 colleges and 34 colleges per lakh population. Karnataka comes at third position with 4047 colleges and 59 colleges per lakh population whereas Rajasthan is at fourth position with 3380 colleges and 37 colleges per lakh population. Andhra Pradesh comes at fifth position with 2750 colleges and has a college density of 51. Tamil Nadu comes at sixth position with 2610 colleges and 38 colleges per lakh population whereas Madhya Pradesh is at seventh position with 2411 colleges and 27 colleges per lakh population. Gujarat has 2275 colleges and 31 colleges for every one lakh population," highlighted the report.
