All India Survey On Higher Education (AISHE), 2011: Data Governance In Academic Landscape In India

Policy Update
Anisha Neogi

Background

From 2011, the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India, has launched the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), which has become a pillar of data governance in higher education. AISHE was envisaged with the objective of resolving the age-old gaps between systematic, genuine, and comprehensive data needed for strategic planning and policy-making in higher education. The central mandate of AISHE is to create an integrated annual database on institutional infrastructure, faculty profile, student enrollment patterns, study programmes, and budgetary expenditure in Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) annually.

As a longitudinal data collection scheme, AISHE is in harmony with national development plans, including the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and is central to achieving India’s vision of a knowledge-based world economy. Key decisions on the allocation of resources, institutional benchmarking, capacity building, and equity-based interventions are taken based on data gathered under AISHE.

Functioning

AISHE survey is conducted through an integrated web portal (http://aishe.gov.in) on the basis that data are furnished each year by all the then-functioning HEIs at central, state, university, affiliated college, and stand-alone professional institution levels. AISHE allocates a distinctive code number to every institute so that it can monitor longitudinal trends and verifications.

The data are provided under the following segments:

Institutional description and governance profile
Courses offered and students’ enrollments by disciplines
Information of academic staff, gender-wise, designation-wise, qualification-wise, and categories-wise
Assets of infrastructure comprising ICT facilities, libraries, labs, and hostel of students
Financial statements consolidating sources and applications of funds

The survey process has multi-level verification stages of data with the help of nodal officials at institution levels and district/state/country level monitoring authorities. These processes enhance uniformity, reduce error in data entry, and facilitate higher accountability.

Performance

In recent rounds, especially AISHE 2020-21 round, the survey has become virtually exhaustive in coverage for higher education space:

Coverage of 1,113 universities, 43,796 colleges, and 11,296 independent institutions
Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) across age group 18–23 at 27.3%, reflecting average rate of growth in access to education at tertiary level
The composition of women among total enrollment was at 49%, reflecting steadily advancing trend towards gender parity
The number of teaching staff was 1.551 million of which the sex composition was 57.1% male and 42.9% female

State-wise figures provide significant heterogeneity: Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh are the first three states of enrollment, and a majority of the northeast states lag far behind, indicating regional disparity. Despite increased participation rates, recurring issues consist of data underreporting, especially from unaided private colleges, as well as delaying the submission dates.

Impact

AISHE has emerged as an anchor instrument of empirical policy-making in Indian higher education. Its key contributions are:

Enhanced resource optimization through policies such as Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)
Tracking and mid-course corrections in NEP 2020 implementation
Location-based and among-student-group differentiation in institutional quality and student learning

Besides, AISHE data have been utilized for national and global benchmarking (e.g., NIRF, QS Rankings), planning for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education), and facilitating academic research using open-access data. Computerized dashboards put data into the public eye and made citizen engagement more effective. Systematic reviews list lack of external audits, delay in releasing data, and absence of fine-grained academic metrics as ongoing limitations.

Emerging Challenges

Shortfalls in Compliance: Ineffective or tardy submissions, that is, private institutions
Disparities in Infrastructure: Technological limits inhibit access by remote and under-equipped HEIs
Shortfall in Data Granularity: Absence of student-level data on socio-economic background, subject-matter expertise, and academic performance
Shortfall in Independent Verification: Absence of third-party authentication lowers data credibility

Solutions

Adopt regional training modules in order to develop institutional capacity for handling and submitting data
Link timely and accurate data reporting to government grant and subsidy eligibility
Improve AISHE’s web interface with real-time feedback and AI-based data validation feature
Establish partnerships with research institutions and civil society organizations for self-initiated audits and analytical audits

Way Forward

AISHE can be a strong catalyst of India’s higher education policy ecosystem. For this, it must become a dynamic, real-time analytics platform together with its allied databases such as UDISE+, NIRF, and SWAYAM. Harmonization of the policies with NEP 2020, creation of data credibility, and generation of participatory data culture for all the HEIs will become crucial. If India aspires to become the world’s education hub, then AISHE can facilitate this dream in being imbibed in strong, just, and transparent data practices.

Selected References and Important Links

AISHE Official Portal: http://aishe.gov.in
AISHE 2020-21 Final Report: https://aishe.gov.in/aishe/viewDocument.action?documentId=277
National Education Policy 2020: https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf
Economic Survey 2022-23: https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/
UDISE, NIRF Dashboards: https://udiseplus.gov.in, https://www.nirfindia.org
Press Information Bureau: https://pib.gov.in

About the Contributor: Anisha Neogi, M.A. Economics (2024 – 26), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. Affiliated with IMPRI’s Internship and Training Programme on Public Policy and Governance.

Acknowlegement: The author sincerely thanks Ms. Aasthaba Jadeja and the IMPRI team for their valuable support.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.