Private Sector Involvement in Higher Education in India: A State Level Analysis

Higher education in India today is at the crossroads. There is a gradual shift from education being a government responsibility to its privatisation. The number of private unaided colleges and private universities has increased, share of enrolment in private institutions increases for most of the states in India. The study focuses on the status of private higher education enrolment of all states/regions in India and the factors influencing private higher education in India. There are considerable inter-state and inter-regional disparities in private higher education enrolment in India. As per AISHE report, in 2020-21, in India, 65 per cent of degree colleges are private unaided, only 21.4 percent colleges are fully public funded, 40.1 per cent of universities are private. Share of enrolment in private unaided college is 44.4 percent and in private aided college is 21.1 per cent; total share of private enrolment is 65.5 per cent. NSSO 71st round unit level data reveals that the private enrolment in higher education in India is about 58.4 percent. Privatisation in Southern and Western states is much higher than other states of India. Private enrolment in general courses is 42.2 per cent and in technical/professional courses it is 71.1 per cent. The picture is very clear that in professional and technical courses private enrolment is too high compared to general courses. Binary logistic regression results suggest that different socio-economic factors like religion, caste, gender, education level and occupation of household, type of courses are responsible for private enrolment of students in Higher education in India.