UP home to most colleges in India, Maharashtra distant second
The top 50 districts account for 31.3 per cent of total colleges. Bengaluru comes on top with 1,106, followed by Jaipur (703) and Hyderabad (491 colleges)
Uttar Pradesh is home to highest number of colleges in India, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to the All India Survey for Higher Education 2021-22.
The survey report, released by the education ministry on Thursday, said the top 10 states for most colleges in the country include Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana and West Bengal. Each has at least 30 or more colleges per lakh population.
On the rise
According to the report, Uttar Pradesh has 8,375 colleges -- up from 8,114 colleges in the previous year. This amounts to 30 colleges per one lakh people.
The states and Union Territories which have a high number of colleges per lakh population are Karnataka (66), Telangana (52), Andhra Pradesh (49), Himachal Pradesh (47), Puducherry (53) and Kerala (46).
Other states
Maharashtra comes second with 4,692 colleges. Karnataka third with 4,430 colleges while Rajasthan is at the fourth spot with 3,934 colleges, the report said.
Tamil Nadu is at the fifth position with 2,829 colleges followed by Madhya Pradesh (2,702), Andhra Pradesh (2,602), Gujarat (2,395). Telangana (2,083) and West Bengal (1,514 colleges).
The education ministry has been conducting AISHE since 2011, covering all higher educational institutions located in India and imparting higher education in the country.
Types of colleges
There are 45,473 colleges registered under AISHE belonging to the 328 universities. Of these, 42,825 responded in the survey year 2021-22.
The survey showed that more than 60 per cent of the colleges are general in nature, 8.7 per cent are specialised in education or teacher education, 6.1 per cent are engineering and technology institutions, 4.3 per cent are nursing colleges and 3.5 per cent are medical colleges.
Out of the 42,825 responding colleges, 14,197 offer PG programmes and 1,063 have PhD enrolments, the report said.
Leading districts
The top 50 districts account for 31.3 per cent of total colleges. Bengaluru comes on top with 1,106, followed by Jaipur (703), Hyderabad (491), Pune (475), Prayagraj (398), Rangareddi (349), Bhopal (344), Ghazipur (333), Sikar (330) and Nagpur (326).
The total estimated enrolment in higher education institutions is 4,32,68,181.
(With agency inputs)
