Chandigarh: The trend of going abroad on study visa from Punjab has taken a toll on the college in the state. Fule by foreign dreams, after studying in class XII, most of the students have started moving abroad, due to which the number of students in colleges and universities are dwindling.
These facts have emerged in the recent report of the All India Survey on Higher Education (2020-21) released on January 29. According to the survey, there is only a PhD degree in which the interest of the students has increased.
According to the survey report, many colleges have been closed in the last five years. In 2020-21, there were 1039 colleges in the state as compared to 1068 in 2016-17. In these five years, 29 colleges have been closed.
According to the data received, 9.59 lakh students were enrolled for higher education in 2017-18, while in 2020-21, these admissions were reduced to 8.33 lakh.
In these four years, the number of students has come down by 1.25 lakh. For most professional courses, full seats in colleges are not being filled. During the four years, there has been a decline in the enrolment of 65,339 girls and 60,862 boys for higher education.
Similarly, 40,187 admissions of Dalit students have also come down. The trend of going abroad on study visa in Punjab started in 2016-17 and grew rapidly.
From 2016 to 2021, 2.62 lakh students from Punjab went abroad on study visas. In the last five years, the trend is that on an average 140 students from Punjab are going to study abroad every day.
At present, out of the government colleges in Punjab, the colleges in the rural areas are almost empty. There are 2056 sanctioned posts in government colleges, out of which 650 posts are lying vacant. In recent times, governments have never given more than Rs 150 crore annually to government colleges.
On the other hand, in the year 2021-22, 64 government colleges have collected Rs 75.83 crore as remaining funds from students, out of which Rs 53.33 crore has been spent on colleges. The government has also saved Rs 16.50 crore from the students’ money.
According to the survey, there has been a decrease of 56,466 admissions in undergraduate courses in five years. Similarly, 56,466 admissions in postgraduate courses have come down.
In 2016-17, 6.43 lakh students were enrolled for under-graduation, which has come down to 5.86 lakh in 2020-21. The major drop has come in MPhil admissions. In 2020-21, 9,566 students were enrolled for PhD as compared to 6,843 in 2016-17.