UP and Maharashtra Have Largest Number of Colleges, Small States Lead in Having More Colleges in Terms of Population

Mumbai: While Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are among the states with the highest number of colleges in the country, states like Telangana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karnataka have more colleges in terms of population.

The All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for 2021-22 was released by the Education Department of the Central Government recently. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of colleges in the country. It was followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra. There are a total of 8,375 colleges in Uttar Pradesh. Last year, the number was 8,114. It is followed by Maharashtra with 4,692 and Karnataka with 4,430. However, in terms of population, the number of colleges in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra is less. Uttar Pradesh has only 29 colleges per lakh population, while Maharashtra has 36 colleges.

States and Union Territories with the highest number of colleges by population include Kerala (46), Himachal Pradesh (47), Andhra Pradesh (49), Karnataka (66), Telangana (52) and Puducherry (53). A total of 1,168 universities, 45,473 colleges at the university level, and 12,000 diploma-like courses were studied in the survey.

19 lakh students in higher education stream
In India, 19 lakh students have been added to the total student enrolment in higher education. In 2020-21, 4.14 crore students were pursuing higher education in India. During the year, the figure has gone up to 4.33 crore. In the last seven years, the total student enrolment has increased by 91 lakh (26.5 percent). In 2014-15, the figure was 3.42 crore.