Nepal remained the largest source of foreign students studying in India in 2023-24, while Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra continued to account for the highest domestic enrolment in higher education, according to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) released by the Ministry of Education.
A total of 58,134 international students from 173 countries were enrolled in Indian higher education institutions during the academic year, the report said.
Nepal accounted for 24.1 per cent of all foreign student enrolment, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 7.0 per cent, the United States and Bangladesh at 5.9 per cent each, Nigeria at 5.5 per cent, and Zimbabwe at 4.0 per cent. The top 10 source countries together accounted for 63.8 per cent of all foreign students studying in India.
Most international students were enrolled in undergraduate programmes, which accounted for 73.6 per cent of total foreign enrolment. Postgraduate programmes accounted for 16.8 per cent.
Among individual programmes, the Bachelor of Technology (BTech) was the most popular, with 14,900 international students enrolled. It was followed by the Bachelor of Science (BSc) with 4,589 students and the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with 3,641 students. The report also recorded 1,117 foreign students enrolled in MBBS programmes across the country.
Within India, the report found that seven states accounted for 59.0 per cent of total higher education enrolment. These were Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, and Rajasthan.
Uttar Pradesh also had the highest number of colleges in the country, at 8,625, followed by Maharashtra (5,380), Karnataka (4,529), and Rajasthan (4,344).
However, the distribution of colleges was more balanced when measured by college density, the number of colleges per lakh of the eligible population. Karnataka ranked first with 69 colleges per lakh eligible population, followed by Telangana with 56. Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh had 51 colleges each. The national average stood at 32 colleges per lakh eligible population.
At the district level, Bengaluru Urban had the highest number of colleges in the country, at 1,148, followed by Jaipur with 742 and Pune with 517.
The report also highlighted growth in higher education across the Northeastern states. Total enrolment in the region increased from 9.4 lakh in 2014-15 to 13.2 lakh in 2023-24. Female enrolment stood at 7.0 lakh, exceeding male enrolment of 6.2 lakh.
