AISHE Report 2020-21: The Education Ministry conducted the All India Survey on Higher Education for the years 2020 to 2021. According to the AISHE Report 2020-21, the student enrolment index in M.Phil programmes has seen a major fall of about 61.3 per cent over the last five years.
The report reveals that the student admission number dropped from 43,267 in 2016-17 to 16,744 in 2020-21 respectively as informed in a recent government survey. The latest final report of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) Report 2020-21 released by the ministry on January 29, 2023 (Sunday), also stated that the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of MPhil courses is -21.1. MPhil and Certificate programmes are the only two programmes that have seen a major fallback in the total number of enrolments this year.
Whereas, other research-based programmes including PhD and Postgraduate degrees have seen a significant increase of 50.21% and 17.69%, respectively, in student enrolment ratio in the past five years.
AISHE Annual Report 2020-21 - Check Here
Level-wise Student Enrolment & CAGR
| Courses |
2016-17 |
2017-18 |
2018-19 |
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
Enrolment Rise/Fall |
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) |
| M.Phil |
43267 |
34109 |
30692 |
23934 |
16744 |
-61.30076039 |
-21.1 |
| PhD. |
141037 |
161412 |
169170 |
202550 |
211852 |
50.21022852 |
10.7 |
| PG |
4007570 |
4114310 |
4042522 |
4312535 |
4716649 |
17.69349007 |
4.2 |
Discontinuation of M.Phil Programme
Due to the major reduction in enrolment numbers for the various M.Phil programmes, the Government of India decided to completely discontinue the course. Under the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Indian Government has advised that the MPhil programme should be stopped and no reason has been declared by the officials so far.
The New Education Policy 2020 stated that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are given the choice and flexibility to offer different available structures of Master’s programmes which are as follows.
- 2-year programme with the second year fully devoted to research (for those who have completed the 3-year Bachelor’s programme)
- Students having a 4-year Bachelor’s programme along with Research can enrol for a 1-year Master’s programme
- An integrated 5-year Bachelor’s/Master’s programme. Undertaking a PhD shall require either a Master’s degree or a 4-year Bachelor’s degree with Research meanwhile the MPhil programme shall be discontinued
This year’s AISHE report has been prepared on the basis of responses received from 1,084 universities, 40,176 colleges and 8,696 standalone institutions.
