Gross Enrolment Ratio in Higher Education: An insight into the enrolment issues of India and China

Abstract

Acquisition of skill and knowledge has become an integral part of the education in the twenty first century. According to neo classical theories it helps to raise the productivity of human being. Educational system especially higher education in all developed countries has already internalized this skill and knowledge into their curriculum. In those countries participation of students in higher education has already achieved a new feat and the economy of those countries have been benefiting from this early start. Compared to that, emerging countries like India is lagging far behind the developed world on this issue. New education policy 2020 has stressed the importance of raising skill and knowledge among the learners. If India desired to be benefited from the demographic dividend of the country, participation of the students in higher education has to be increased. Other emerging economy like China which happens to be a country with one hundred and forty crores plus population like India had started their journey as an independent country in 1949, just two year later than India. But China had achieved more than double in terms of gross enrolment ratio compared to India which is an indicator of participation in higher education. Since India and China has always been compared on development aspect, this paper intends to study the status of participation of students in higher education in both India and China. An attempt has been made to assess the disparities in terms of few selected parameters. The study found that per capita income, literacy rate and expenditure on education by the state should be raised.