More students for Postgraduate; few takers for MPhil, PhD in state in 16-17: AISHE

Even as the number of students enrolling under various postgraduate courses in Maharashtra saw an increase, fewer students enrolled for research degrees like MPhil and PhD in the last year, reveals the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2016-17.

The survey, released by HRD minister Prakash Javadekar in Delhi on January 5, was conducted between December 2016 to September 2017. The 7,528 PhD enrollments in 2016-17 disrupted the increasing trend observed by the state between 2012-13 and 2015-16 wherein the number of enrollments had gone up from 5,643 to 9,229. The number of students enrolling for MPhil degrees has gone down from 2,900 in 2015-16 to 2,660 in 2016-17. But enrollments for postgraduate courses went up from 4,06,625 in 2015-16 to 4,33,625 in 2016-17.

Mrudul Nile, Associate Professor, Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai said that the drop in enrollments for research degrees shows a systemic discouragement and structural discrimination towards research. "Teachers are not encouraging students to take up research and fail to guide them. Several students from vernacular medium backgrounds often do not get the necessary push. There is also poor awareness about scholarships and fellowships that the government gives under various schemes for research. In many cases, fellowships do not reach in time thus making research restricted to those who can afford to spend from their own pocket."