
Women's enrolment in technical education has increased from 4 per cent in 2022 to 17 per cent in 2025, with the strongest growth in deep-tech subjects like Artificial Intelligence (AI), prompt engineering, cybersecurity, robotics, and data science, according to a report released today, Thursday, September 25.
This shift is especially obvious in AI and Machine Learning (ML) programmes, where women students’ enrollment has increased fourfold in a single year, from 5 per cent in 2024 to 20 per cent in 2025, stated the report released by College Vidya, the University Grants Commission's education platform.
The report is based on 17,685 enrolments on the College Vidya platform between January 2025 and August 2025, PTI reports.
"Today, one in every five students in AI and ML Master's programmes is a woman, compared to only one in 20 last year. The overall demand for AI programmes has skyrocketed by 500 per cent in the past two years, and women are emerging as key contributors to this wave of growth," the report claimed.
According to the report, women now account for 25 per cent of Masters of Computer Applications Cybersecurity students and 15 per cent of doctoral applicants in Generative AI.
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh account for 70 per cent of enrolments, with Tier 2 and 3 towns driving the growth, it added.