AISHE Higher-Education Explorer
Of every 100 young Indians of college age (18–23), how many actually reach higher education — and how does that vary by state and gender? Drawn from AISHE (the All India Survey on Higher Education), the Ministry of Education's annual census of every university, college and standalone institution. The final rung of the learning ladder that ASER and UDISE+ begin.
What is AISHE — and why it matters
Every year, every degree-granting institution in India reports its students, teachers and programmes to AISHE. Its headline number is the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) — enrolment in higher education as a share of the 18–23 population. GER is where the whole learning pipeline ends up: a child who can't read a Std II text (ASER) in a school with no library (UDISE+) rarely reaches college at all. Two facts stand out — India's GER is still barely above a quarter of young people, and it varies enormously by state; yet women now enrol at a higher rate than men, one of the quietest big changes in Indian society.
▸ How to read this explorer
- Start with the question. Tap any underlined word to change the view, the gender, or the social group.
- GER is a percentage — enrolment as a share of the 18–23 age group. It can exceed 100% locally when students come from elsewhere. The dashed line marks the All-India figure.
- Three views: Rank the states, Track the national climb over time (by social group), or List the table.
- State figures are for 2023-24 (latest); the national trend runs 2011-12–2021-22 on the 2011-census projection basis, so the two series aren't strictly comparable — read the trend for its shape, the states for their spread.
Making sense of the numbers
What GER measures. The Gross Enrolment Ratio is total higher-education enrolment divided by the population aged 18–23, as a percentage. "Gross" means it counts everyone enrolled regardless of age, so a state that draws students from elsewhere (or has many older learners) can post a very high GER — read it as reach, not a pass rate. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) is women's GER divided by men's: 1.0 is parity, above 1 means women enrol at a higher rate.
Reading it responsibly. A high state GER (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, the hill and southern states) reflects a dense network of colleges and strong school-completion; a low one (Bihar, and much of the north and north-east) reflects where the pipeline leaks earliest. Women's GER now exceeds men's nationally and in most states — a real and important shift — but GER says nothing about the quality or field of that education, or whether it leads to work. Treat it as the door, not the room.
Note on years & comparability. State GER is from AISHE 2023-24 (the latest edition). The national GER and GPI time-series (2011-12 to 2021-22) are published on the 2011-census population-projection basis; AISHE 2023-24 revised its denominators, so its all-India GER (27.8%) is not directly comparable to the older series (28.4% in 2021-22). Both are shown with their own years.
Data compiled from the AISHE 2023-24 report (state-wise GER table) and AISHE's national GER & GPI time-series (Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India). Every state value was range-checked and spot-validated against published figures. Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu is omitted (its row could not be read unambiguously). This is an independent, source-linked interface for learning and discussion — for methodology and authoritative interpretation, consult AISHE directly. ImpactMojo is not affiliated with the Ministry of Education.