Post-secondary Enrolment in Higher Education

In an interesting article, “Measuring Access, Quality and Relevance in Higher Education” (EPW, 13 June 2020), Pankaj Mittal et al plead for the use of the eligibi­lity enrolment ratio (EER) in place of the gross enrolment ratio (GER) and to include all post-secondary enrolment, including vocational training, etc, in the definition.

The GER—enrolment of youth in the age group 18–23 as a proportion of the population—has been the standard measure of enrolment in higher education, and this is being extensively used by researchers and policymakers at the national and global levels as well. This rose to 27% as per the latest statistics, which also marks a significant improvement over the years. Given the rapid and unbridled growth of private education, and given the gross nature of this indicator, one can expect this to rise further fast. Recent policy goals with respect to this set by, say, the Knowledge Commission, and later the Planning Commission and the University Grants Commission (UGC), are already achieved and/or likely to be achieved soon.