Educational Structure in India

 

Inherited from the British colonial Raj, India's modern educational system is similar in many ways to the British educational system. After Independence in 1947, modern India began to focus on its industrialization strategy and creating a pool of talented human resources for industry. Focus shifted to building elite tertiary institutions rather than on primary education. India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru insisted on the foundation of elite technological training in engineering and management as a first step towards this larger objective. With a greater focus in recent years on reforming higher education, adapting the American semester system model and the use of credits and letter grades, in addition to far-reaching reforms in the national higher secondary school exams, more changes are bound to be in the offing.

 

Indian Collegiate Education

Bachelor's Degrees  Three-year degrees

• Bachelor's degrees in Arts, Science, Commerce and Social Science three years length of study

Bachelors Degrees - B.E/B.Tech. - 4 year course

• Architecture- 4 or 5 years, leading to a B. Arch
• Dentistry- 4 years, leading to a B.D.S
• Medicine- 5.5 years including rotation, leading to an MBBS degree
• Fine Arts/Music- 4 or 5 years B.Music/B.Fine

Master's degrees in Arts, Science and Commerce:

• Requires two years of full time study and after completion of Bachelor's degree

Master of Engineering and Technology

• Requires 2 years of full time study and after completion of bachelor's degree

Master of Computer Science and Applications (MCSA)

• Length of study - two to three years

Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) in Humanities and Social Science:

• Length of study - 1-2 years (few universities offer this program)

Doctoral Degree or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D./D.Phil)

• 4-6 years (students having an M.Phil. move into research early and finish earlier)

Degree-granting institutions

• "Deemed Universities" - This status of autonomy is granted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development based on the recommendations of the University Grants Commission to high-performance institutions - this may be considered as the first step to become a full university status.
• Universities: India has over several tiers of institutions in its university system.

Central Universities - Funded by the Central Government

• For example: Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University

State Universities - Funded by the state government and/or the UGC

• For example: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, University of Calcutta

Institutions of National Importance

• For example: Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management

Independent University-level specialized institutions funded by the Central government

• For example: Indian Institutes of Technology

Open Universities are Central- and State-operated universities offering distance education

• For example: Indira Gandhi National Open University, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University

Specialized Universities offering education in specialized fields of study

• For example: Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Gandhigram Rural University

Quick Facts on Secondary and Tertiary Education.

Literacy Rates* (%):

• Male - 82.14
• Female - 65.46
• Both - 74.04

Total Enrollment in School Education*:

• Primary - 146.7 million
• Middle - 90.2 million
• Matric/Secondary - 79.2 million
• Higher secondary - 37.8 million
• Undergraduate & above - 37.6 million

Number of higher education institutions

• Colleges: 17,000 approx.
• Univ and Univ- level institutions: 497

Higher Education: Enrollment

• Male - 6.3 million approx.
• Female - 4.234 million approx.
• Both - 10. 5 million approx

Enrollment by stages in higher education

• Graduate (Bachelor's) - 88.9 %
• Post-graduate (MS/Ph.D.) - 9.41%
• Research - 0.85%
• Diploma / Certificate - 1.04