Defying odds, more girls enter mechanical, civil, marine and mining engineering courses

The number of students enrolled in undergraduate engineering courses in India steadily declined from 2016, despite the increase in the overall number of students pursuing college education

The number of students enrolled in undergraduate engineering courses in India steadily declined from 2016, despite the increase in the overall number of students pursuing college education, according to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE). In recent years, the number of students enrolled in India was highest in the arts, science, and commerce streams, followed by engineering. Engineering was also the only discipline in which the number of students enrolled consistently declined between 2016 and 2022.

There was a slight uptick in 2022 in enrolment in undergraduate engineering courses, which may have been due to the introduction of several new courses in the survey, which were previously not tracked by AISHE. This bump did not alter the trend, however.

The decline in enrolment in engineering courses was more pronounced among male students than female. 

Chart 1 shows the number of male and female students who enrolled for undergraduate engineering courses between FY13 and FY22.

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Chart 2 shows the number of female students enrolled in specific undergraduate engineering courses and their share in the overall intake, between FY13 and FY22.

In 2013, large numbers of female students took up electronics engineering, computer engineering, and information technology (IT). In computer engineering and information technology, female students comprised more than 45% of all students in 2013. As the decade progressed, the presence of female students in these disciplines dropped by some 10% points each.