UP leads the nation in the number of colleges, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to the AISHE study

NEW DELHI: According to the Ministry of Education’s publication of the All India Survey for Higher Education (AISHE) 2021–22 on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh leads the nation in the number of institutions, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka.
With at least 30 colleges per lakh of people, the top 10 states in India in terms of college density are West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Telangana.

In Uttar Pradesh, there are 8,375 colleges, up from 8,114 the year before, and 30 institutions for every lakh people, according to the survey report.
The states and Union Territories with the highest number of colleges per lakh population are Kerala (46), Himachal Pradesh (47), Andhra Pradesh (49), Karnataka (66), Telangana (52), and Puducherry (53).
“With 4,692 colleges, Maharashtra stands in second place. With 4,430 colleges, Karnataka is ranked third, while Rajasthan is ranked fourth with 3,934 institutions. With 2,829 institutions, Tamil Nadu is ranked fifth, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 2,702 colleges, according to the survey.
“With 2,602 colleges, Andhra Pradesh is ranked seventh, while Gujarat is ranked eighth with 2,395 institutions. With 2,083 institutions, Telangana is ranked tenth, followed by West Bengal with 1,514 colleges,” the statement said.
Since 2011, all Indian higher education institutions that provide higher education are included in the AISHE program, which is run by the Ministry of Education.
The survey gathers comprehensive data on several aspects, including student enrollment, instructor data, infrastructure data, financial data, etc.
Of the 328 universities, 45,473 colleges are registered with AISHE (affiliating). 42,825 of them answered in the survey conducted in 2021–2022.
According to the survey report, the majority of schools—60%—are general in character, while 8.7% of them specialize in education or teacher preparation, 6.1% are engineering and technology colleges, 4.3% are nursing colleges, and 3.5% are medical colleges.
While 2.7% of institutions provide arts courses, 2.4% offer pharmacy courses, 0.7% offer scientific degrees, and 1.4% offer Sanskrit studies.
“Out of the 42,825 responding colleges, 14,197 colleges are offering PG programmes and 1,063 have PhD enrolments,” said the study.
District-specific colleges are widely dispersed around the nation. Approximately 10.7% of all institutions registered with AISHE are located in the top 10 districts. Thirteen percent of all institutions are located in the top 50 districts. 1,106 colleges are located in the Bengaluru Urban district, with the remaining districts being Jaipur (703), Hyderabad (491), Pune (475), Prayagraj (398), Rangareddi (349), Bhopal (344), Ghazipur (333), Sikar (330), and Nagpur (326).
The overall estimated enrollment in higher education institutions is 4,32,68,181, of which 3,14,59,092 are in colleges, 21,70,744 are in stand-alone institutions, and 96,38,345 are in universities and their component units.