Special Report, By Rudra Narayan Sahoo, New Delhi: The share of students opting PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) course in India stood at 0.34% in the academic year 2014-15. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education (Graduation) has been 23.6% in 2014-15, which is calculated for 18-23 years of age group. Among states, Delhi saw the highest number of PhD enrolment while Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka were leading states in PhD enrolment. Over the last few years, the shares of students opting PhD has been remaining at below 0.4 %, means 4 out of 1000 students in the age group of 18-23 years opting PhD.
As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE 2014-15) provisional report, a total of 1.12 lakh students are enrolled in PhD that is about 0.34% of the total student enrolment in the academic year 2014-15. PhD level has 60% male and 40% female. Tamil Nadu saw the highest number of student enrolling PhD in India with 18,535 while Delhi saw the second highest number of students enrolling PhD with 11,896. Uttar Pradesh (11,609), Karnataka (11,070) and Maharashtra (8,437) were also leading states in enrolment of students in Doctoral Programmes.
At PhD level, maximum number of students was enrolled in Science stream followed by Engineering & Technology and social science while at Post Graduate level, maximum students are enrolled in Social Science stream and Science comes number two, as per AISHE 2013-14 report. It has been watched that after Post-Graduation in science courses, only 6% of them opted PhD while in Engineering & Technology 9% students had opted PhD in 2013-14. In Agriculture and Allied courses, 21% of students opted for PhD after their Post-Graduation.
The share of Doctoral Programme student is higher in State Public University (34%), followed by Central University (20%), Institute of National Importance, such as IITs, NIITs and IIITs (19%), and Deemed University –Private (13%).
As per the responses from universities and higher educational institutes in the AISHE 2013-14 report, a total number of students awarded PhD level degree in 2013 is 23,861 with 14,223 male and 8703 female. Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of students (3,311) who were awarded PhD degree followed by Tamil Nadu (2,995) and Rajashtan 2,056.
