Reservation in Higher Education: Category-wise Student Enrollment in Universities & Colleges

Reservations or quotas have been an integral part of the Indian higher education system. Over the years many students from reserved categories, especially those belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), have been admitted in reputed universities and colleges of India basis quota.

Reservation quota in context of Indian higher education system basically means that a set percentage of seats is reserved in all universities and colleges for students who are socially and educationally backward or belong to different castes such as SC and ST.

In Indian higher education institutions, 15% and 7.5% seats are reserved for SC and ST category candidates, respectively. Apart from that, 27% seats are reserved by the government for OBC category students. This takes the total percentage of reservation in Indian colleges and universities to 49.5%, leaving 50.5% of available seats for General category candidates.

Category-wise Student Enrollment

As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report 2015-16, a total of 3,45,84,781 students (of all categories) enrolled in Indian higher education institutions last year. Out of these, a total of 52.56% (1,81,88,310) students were from reserved categories (SC, ST, OBC) and the remaining 47.44% (1,63,96,471) belonged to General category.

[Given in the graph above are statistics of five years (2011-12 to 2015-16) regarding enrollment of General, SC, ST, and OBC category students in Indian universities and colleges.]

It has been observed (and as also evident in the graph above) that over a period of five years, student enrollment in General category has significantly decreased from 53.2% in 2011-12 to 47.4% in 2015-16. Also, on the other hand student enrollment across SC, ST, and OBC categories has increased over the years.

Year	SC Enrollment	ST Enrollment	OBC Enrollment	Total Enrollment
2011-12	35,72,074	13,10,261	87,72,138	1,36,54,473
2012-13	38,47,942	13,20,361	94,16,299	1,45,84,602
2013-14	42,38,207	14,86,512	1,04,64,043	1,58,88,762
2014-15	46,06,666	16,40,809	1,12,56,849	1,75,04,324
2015-16	48,10,314	17,04,461	1,16,73,535	1,81,88,310

As shown in the table above, in 2011-12, a total of 1,36,54,473 (46.8%) SC, ST, and OBC candidates secured admission in different universities and colleges. However, in 2015-16 the student enrollment number (for SC, ST, OBC categories) went up to 1,81,88,310 (52.6%).

It may be noted here that in the last five years starting from 2011-12 to 2015-16, total number of students (irrespective of their category) enrolled in different universities and colleges has also considerably increased as shown in the table below:

Year	Total Student Enrollment
2011-12	2,91,84,331
2012-13	3,01,52,417
2013-14	3,23,36,234
2014-15	3,42,11,637
2015-16	3,45,84,781

Statistics in terms of increasing number of students availing higher education every year look promising. However, the year on year decreasing graph of General category students’ enrollment in higher education institutions might be a situation of concern in future.