Telangana students prefer government colleges, says report

HYDERABAD: An increasing number of students in Telangana seem to be signing up with government colleges to pursue a course in higher education. At least so it seems from the latest All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), which shows that the overall enrolment in government colleges improved by 22% over the last five years.
Released by the Union ministry of education on June 10, the report states that the numbers in government institutions of Telangana jumped from 1,44,604 in 2015-2016 to 1,86,272 in 2019-20.And while the enrolment in government colleges observed a rise, private unaided colleges saw a drop in head count — from 9,39,907 in 2015-2016 to 8,55,415 in 2019-2020. Reason: Revamping of government institutes.
“In the last five years, we updated the course structures and added more number of courses that offer a combination of computer studies. We have also offered flexibility in choosing them. There was also massive upgradation of labs that was taken up. Not just that, there was an increase in guest faculty members from different institutions, which could have contributed to this,” said Navin Mittal, commissioner of collegiate and technical education.
Another factor, as numbers suggest, could be the closure of private institutes. As per the report, the number of colleges in Telangana dropped from 2,454 in 2015-2016 to 2,071 in 2019-2020, many of which were private aided and unaided institutions.
While the overall gross enrolment ratio (GER) dropped from 36.3% to 35.6% in five years, it increased marginally among female candidates. As per the AISHE report, the GER among female candidates increased from 33.4% in 2015-2016 to 36.3% in 2019-2020.
“The residential educational system initiated by the Telangana government increased the intake of female candidates. Majority female admissions that we have got over the last five years are from residential schools and junior colleges. This also goes on to indicate the change in mindset among parents,” said K Ramdass, president, Telangana State Pharmacy Colleges Association.
The GER among male candidates, that dropped from 39.3% to 34, experts say is due to increased migration of these students to institutions, including the IITs and private universities, in other states.
The report also threw light on the fact that an increasing number of students are pursuing PhDs in Telangana. In 2019-2020 as many as 5,508 students were pursuing PhD in the state as against 3,430 in 2018-2019.