BENGALURU:For the third year in a row, the Bengaluru Urban district has topped the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) list with the most number of higher education institutions/colleges.
The AISHE survey was released by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Department (MHRD) for the academic year 2017-18 on July 31. As per the survey report, Bengaluru Urban district tops the country with a total of 893 colleges — the highest in India — followed by Jaipur with 558, Hyderabad 472, Pune 442 and Rangareddy district 343 colleges.
However, though Bengaluru Urban district maintained the top position for three years, a look at the number of colleges shows a decrease. During the AISHE 2016-17 academic year, Bengaluru Urban district topped the country with 1,025 colleges. It was 970 during the 2015-16 academic year. For the 2017-18 year, the number has fallen by 132 from 2016-17 to 893.
According to officials of the state department of higher education, the decline was because last year although there were more permits granted to start new colleges, “some of them have not started operating; and some even closed down," said a senior official of the department.
This data of colleges offering higher education includes government-run colleges, universities, private colleges, stand-alone institutions and even colleges offering professional courses.The survey was conducted online by appointing nodal officers to upload the data on a portal dedicated for AISHE.
KARNATAKA STANDS THIRD HIGHEST
The state-wise data has shown that Karnataka has the third highest number of colleges among the states of the Indian Union, after UP and Maharashtra. These three are followed by Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
These are the top eight states in India which have more than the national average of 28 colleges per lakh population. In UP, there are a total of 6,922 colleges — 28 colleges for every one lakh population.
Maharashtra comes second with a total of 4,314 colleges, which is 33 colleges per lakh population. Karnataka comes at third position with a total of 3,593 colleges, at 51 colleges per lakh population; whereas Rajasthan is at the fourth position with a total 2,957 colleges with 33 colleges per lakh population.