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India Factsheet

Structure of Indian Higher Education

 

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 fuelling economic development. Focus shifted to building elite tertiary institutions rather than strengthening 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. There has been a greater focus in recent years on reforming higher education, by adopting 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
 

School Education: Primary School (I to V) 5 years
  Middle School (VI to VIII) 3 years
  Secondary School (IX to X) 2 years
  Senior Secondary (XI to XII) 2 years
     
     
Post-secondary Education: B.A. / B.Sc. / B.Com 3 years
  Professional Courses 4 to 5 years
  Integrated Bachelors and
Master's programs
5 years
     
Post-graduate Education Master's programs 2 years
  M.Phil. + Ph.D.  2 - 5 years
     
Post Bachelor's and Master's Diploma / Certificate programs 1 -3 years


Bachelor's Degrees  

  • Bachelor's degrees in Arts, Science, Commerce and Social Science - 3 years
Bachelors Degrees - Professional 
  • Architecture- 4 or 5 years B. Arch
  • Dentistry- 4 years
  • Medicine- 5.5 years including rotation
  • Fine Arts/Music- 4 or 5 years B.Music/B.Fine Arts
Master's degrees in Arts, Science and Commerce, Engineering:
  • Requires two years of full time study and after completion of bachelor's degree
Master of Philososphy (M.Phil.) in Humanities and Social Sciences:
  • Length of study - 1-2 years
Doctoral Degree or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D./ D.Phil) - 3-6 years

Degree-granting institutions
  • Deemed Universities - is a status of autonomy is granted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to institutions that have established exemplary standards in area such as teaching, educational administration and research. This may be considered as the first step to attain a full university status. (Example: Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka)
  • Affiliating Universities - are large universities that administer and affiliate collegiate institutions that work under their aegis. These collegiate institutions are governed by a uniform lawas, structures, students and faculty recruitment policies as set out by the affiliating university. Delhi University has over 80 colleges affiliated to it that follow uniform laws, procedures, admission cycles, accreditation standards. (Other Examples: Pune University, Rajasthan University)
     
  • Other Universities: 
  • Central Universities - Funded by the Central Government (Examples: Aligarh Muslim University, Jawaharlal Nehru University)
  • State Universites - Funded by the state government and/ or the UGC (Example: University of Delhi, University of Calcutta)
  • (Example: Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management)
  • Independent University - Specialized institutions funded by the Central Government (Example: Indian Institute of Technology)
  • Open Universities - Central and State operated universities offering distance education (Example: Indira Gandhi National Open University, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University)
  • Specialized Universities offering education in specialized fields of study (Examples: Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Gandhigram Rural University)

Indian Higher Education - Statistics
Literacy Rates* (%):
  • Male - 82.14
  • Female - 65.46
  • Both - 74.04
Source: Census of India, 2011


Total Education Enrolments:

School Education: Primary School (I to V) 127.9 Million 
  Middle School (VI to VIII) 56.4 Million 
  Secondary School (IX to X) 28.6 Million 
  Higher Secondary (XI to XII) 16.2 Million
     
Tertiary Education:  Undergraduate and graduate enrolments 16.97 Million 

Source: 8th All India School Education Survey, UGC Annual Report 2010-11
 

Universities and Colleges:

  • Universities in India - 573
  • Total Colleges - 33, 023

Source: UGC Annual Report 2010-11; Prof. Ved Prakash, "Inclusive and qualitative expansion of higher education in India - 12th Five Year Plan 2012-2017" University Grants Commisssion (2010-2011)


Enrolment by Gender Higher Education:
  • Male - 99.26 Million
  • Female - 70.49 Million
  • Total - 16. 97 Million
Enrolment by Stages - Higher Education:
  • Undergraduate - 86.11%
  • Postgraduate - 12.07%
  • Diploma/ Certificate - 1.01%
  • Research - 0.81%

Source: UGC Annual Report 2010-11

 


Comparative Indian student enrolments in the United States
YEAR TOTAL ENROLMENT GRADUATE % OF GRADUATE UNDERGRAD % OF
UNDERGAD
OTHERS % OF
OTHERS
2006-07 83,833 59,521 71% 12,575 15% 10,898 13%
2007-08 94,563 68,069 72% 13,639 14.4% 12,855 13.1%
2008-09 103,260 71,019 68% 15,600 15.1% 16,641 16.1%
2009-10 104,897 68,290 65.1% 15,192 14.5% 21,415 20.4%
2010-11 103,895 63,584 61.2% 14,026 13.5% 26,295 25.3%
2011-12 100,270 59,014 58.8% 13,059 13% 28,197 28.1%
2012-13 96,754 54,607 56.4% 12,740 13.1% 29,407 30.4%
Source: Institute of International Education, Open Doors
 

F1 Visas issued in India
YEAR
REGION
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
CHENNAI 7,553 6,660 7,892 10,699 14,281 14,110 7,040 5,294 6,547
HYDERABAD - - - - - - 4,040 6,371 6,274
KOLKATA 1,308 1,280 1,144 1,117 1,314 1,394 1,240 1,369 1,600
MUMBAI 5,032 5,064 5,350 7,930 11,245 13,617 8,930 7,534 6,630
NEW DELHI 3,743 3,887 3,887 4,876 5,812 5,389 4,610 4,007 4,608
TOTAL 17,636 16,891 18,653 24,622 32,652 34,510 25,860 24,575 25,659
Source: U.S. Embassy, New Delhi India