‘Low-income Muslims less likely to opt for higher education’
The Hindu
Former UGC chairman addresses MANUU’s 25th Foundation Day lecture
There are internal disparities among Muslims in attainment of higher education based on income-level, gender and medium of education, and institutions like Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) must give preference to such groups through scholarships, differential fee structure, hostel facility and remedial coaching classes.
This view was expressed by former chairman of University Grants Commission, Sukhdeo Thorat while delivering a lecture on ‘Where do Muslims lag behind in higher education?: Lessons for policies’ at MANUU’s 25th Foundation Day on Sunday.
He said Muslims had the lowest Gross Enrolment Ratio (16.6%) in higher education among all the communities in the country while the national average was 26.3%. Muslim students depend highly on government institutions (54.1%) as compared to other communities (national average 45.2%). Only 18.2% go to private aided higher education institutions and 27.4% to private unaided higher education institutions against a national average of 24.4% and 30.1% respectively. Private aided and unaided higher education institutions are mostly English medium professional colleges, and Muslims have less access to those institutions, said Mr. Thorat.