E-journal of All India Association for Educational Research (EJAIAER)
VOL.20 Nos: 3
& 4 September
& December, 2008
EXPANSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN GOA
G.C. Pradhan
INTRODUCTION
Objectives of the Study
To
study the growth of higher education in Goa during the last two decades in
terms: number and types of institutions, types of courses offered, student
enrolment, and course-wise gender difference in enrolment and teacher population.
Procedures Followed
The
study involved an analysis of the expansion of higher education in Goa during
the last two decades. It is basically a
descriptive comparative study. The data
for the study were obtained mainly from the following sources:
1.Educational
Statistics at a Glance (various years);
2.List
of Recognised Institutions in Goa (for various years) published by the
Directorate of School Education (DoE), Govt. of Goa;
3.Goa
University Hand Book (for various years);
4.Prospectus
and Annual Reports of different institutions.
An
Information Schedule prepared by the investigator was used to record the data
from the said documents. The obtained
data were tabulated and frequency/percentage analysis of the same was carried
out.
FINDINGS
Number
and Types of Institutions
There
were only 8 colleges offering courses in the general stream (Arts, Science
& Commerce) and 10 professional/technical colleges by the year
1985-86. It indicated that growth of
higher education was very slow during the first two decades in the
post-liberation period. The number of
general (non-professional) colleges increased to 15 (nearly double) by the year
1990-91, just in 5 years. Further, the
number of general colleges increased to 20 during the subsequent 5 years period
(1990-91 to 1995-96). It is pertinent
to note that Goa University was established in 1985 and Goa got statehood in
1987. Perhaps these two factors
contributed for rapid expansion of general higher education in the State
between 1985-86 and 1995-96. No new
general colleges were established during the last one decade (1995-96 to
2006-07). On the other hand, it was found that only 10 professional/technical
institutions of higher education were established in the State by the year
1985-86. A steady increase in number of
professional/technical institutions was observed during the last two decades
(1985-86 to 2006-07).The number of institutions offering professional/technical
courses increased to 26 by the year 2006-07, two and half times increase in 20
years. It was found that there were two
and half time increase in the number of general colleges established between
1985-86 to 1995-96. But after 1995-96,
there was hardly any expansion of general (non-professional) higher
education. On the other hand,
quantitative expansion of professional/technical higher education consistently
continued over the years. In fact, after
1995-96, priority was shifted from general education towards
professional/technical education.
Courses
Offered
The
number of colleges offering Bachelor’s degree courses in Arts, Science and
Commerce (B.A., B.Sc. and B.Com.) increased substantially over the years. The number of colleges offering Bachelor’s
degree courses in Arts increased from 5 in 1985-86 to 15 in 2007-08, i.e.
three-times increase. Also, the increase
was two and half times in the case of the number of colleges offering B.Sc.
degree courses during the same period.
Compared to the B.A. and B.Sc. degree courses, the increase was higher
(four times) so far as the number of colleges offering B.Com. degree courses
was concerned. Besides, the traditional
B.A., B.Sc. and B.com. degree courses, several new courses have been introduced
by many of the general colleges in the recent years on self-financing basis. The courses includes B.B.A., B.C.A., B.Com
(Vocational), Diploma courses in Computer Applications, Fire Technology,
Biotechnology, Event Management, Journalism etc. By the year 1985-86, there
were facilities for only 9 professional/technical courses (viz. Education, Law,
Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, Engineering, Art and Architecture) in the
State. The number and type of
professional courses steadily increased over the years. By the year 2007-08, the number of
disciplines in which professional courses offered in the state increased to
17. The number of institutions offering
each of the professional courses remained the same during the last two decades
except in the case of Engineering, Education, Management and Computer Science
in which the number of institutions increased between 2000-01 and 2007-08. The
Master’s degree courses were conducted only by the Goa University in its campus
until the recent years, except in some professional courses like Education and
Medicine. Only the Bachelor’s degree
courses were offered by the colleges.
Goa University made some changes in its policies regarding the conduct
of Master’s degree in non-professional courses and has granted affiliation in
the recent years to some colleges to conduct Master’s degree courses in the
subjects of Geography, Psychology and Commerce.
However, these courses are run on self-financing basis. Goa University offers M.A. degree courses in
11 subjects, M.Sc. in 10 subjects, besides M. Com., M.C.A, M.F.S. and M.B.A
courses. Master’s degree courses in seven subjects/disciplines viz. Medical,
Engineering, Pharmacy, Law, Geography, Psychology and Commerce are available in
colleges in Goa at present. In Goa,
there are no Master’s degree courses in many subjects/disciplines like Physical
Education, Library Science, Social Work etc.
Financing
of Higher Education
In
1985-86, 70 percent of the professional/technical institutions (i.e. 7 out of
10) were established and managed by the state government and the remaining 30
percent were run by private bodies but funded by the State Government. There
were no self-financed/unaided professional/technical institutions in the State
at that point of time. By the year
1995-96, number of government institutions increased to 9 and that of
government aided increased to 4. During
the same period, 2 self-financed/unaided institutions were established which
constituted only 13 percent of the total number of professional/technical
institutions. No new
professional/technical institutions were established by the Government between
1995-96 and 2007-08. Only one government
aided institution was established during this period. But there was phenomenal growth of private
self-financed professional/technical institutions in the State between 1995-96
and 2007-08. As many as 11 self-financed
professional/technical institutions were established with in a period of 12
years. It was found that till 1985-86, not a single general (non-professional)
college was established by the Government.
But all the private colleges were provided grants-in-aid by the
Government. Between 1985-86 and 1995-96,
government had established 4 general (Arts, Science and Commerce) colleges
particularly in the rural areas and provided grants-in-aid to 3 additional
private colleges. Since 1995-96, government
has not established any more colleges in the State, but has encouraged private
bodies to establish such colleges by providing grants-in-aid to such new
colleges. Thus it is clear that unlike many other States, in Goa there are no
exclusively private unaided/self-financed general (non-professional) colleges
(Arts, Science & Commerce colleges).
However, in the recent years many of these aided colleges have
introduced several need-based/job-oriented degree/diploma courses on
self-financing basis. On the other hand,
50 percent of the professional/technical colleges in the state at present are
exclusively unaided/self-financed. All
the general (non-professional) colleges are funded by the government (though
certain self-financed courses are conducted by some of these colleges) whereas
about one-half of the professional/technical colleges are run on self-financing
basis.
Enrolment
in Higher Education
There
was continuous increase in enrolment in higher education in Goa during the last
two decades. Altogether 11,362
students were enrolled in the year
1987-88 and by the year 2006-07, the figure increased to 22,615, nearly double
within a span of 18 years. The enrolment
in general higher education (non-professional) increased from 8,886 in 1987-88
to 16,122 in 2006-07. The increase was
81 percent over the years. On the other
hand, enrolment in professional/technical higher education increased to 6,493
in 2006-07 from 2422 in 1987-88, an increase of 162 percent. The rate of increase in enrolment in professional/technical
education was much higher than in the general education streams. Also, it was observed that between 1996-97
and 1999-2000, there was drop in enrolment in the general stream, where as
enrolment in professional/technical education increased very sharply during the
same period. Moreover, after 1999-2000,
there was very steep rise in enrolment in professional/technical courses
compared to the general stream courses indicating a growing awareness among the
youth about the importance of professional/technical education. Presently
nearly 30 percent of the total enrolment in higher education in Goa is in
professional/technical courses. Total enrolment in the general stream at the
Bachelor’s degree level was 9746 in the year 1990-91 . It increased to 14356 by the year 2006-07, an
increase of only 47 percent in 16 years. The increase in enrolment during the
last 16 years was highest in B.Sc. degree courses (73 percent) followed by 51
percent in B.Com. and 27 percent in B.A.
The increase in B.A. degree courses was only marginal during the last 16
years. Moreover, after 1993-94,
enrolment in B.A. courses declined significantly. Also, in B.Sc. degree courses, enrolment slightly
decreased, but in B.Com. courses, enrolment increased consistently over the
past 16 years. Further, it was found
that of the total enrolment in the general streams at Bachelor’s degree level
in 2006-07, 26 percent was in B.A., 18 percent in B.Sc. and 56 percent in
B.Com. degree courses. Altogether there were 676 students enrolled in different
Master’s degree courses in the year 1987-88 in Goa University. By the year 2006-07, the enrolment increased
to 1279, an increase of just 89 percent in 19 years. Enrolment in Goa
University fluctuated frequently from year to year. It has been observed that except in M. Sc.
degree and professional courses, in many of the M.A. degree courses in the
faculties of Languages and Social Sciences, the actual enrolment remained far
below the prescribed intake over the years.
Gender
Gap in Enrolment
Enrolment
of male students in higher education (all courses) in 1987-88 was 5997 which
constituted 52.8 percent of the total enrolment. On the other hand, enrolment of female
students was 5365, i.e. 47.2 percent of the total enrolment in the said academic
year. It was observed that during the
subsequent years, though enrolment of both the sexes increased significantly,
the proportion of male students consistently declined and that of the female
students increased. By the year 1993-94,
the male-female ratio became 47:53 i.e. the enrolment of girls was higher than
that of the boys. By 2006-07, the gender
gap in enrolment further widened in favour of the girls and the male-female
ratio in enrolment became 42:58, i.e. 42 percent boys and 58 percent girls. In
1987-88, 68 percent of the total enrolments were boys and only 32 percent were
girls in professional/technical courses. It was found that in the subsequent
years, the gender gap in enrolment was reduced.
By the year 2006-07, the proportion of male and female students in the
professional/technical courses was equal.
However, in all the professional/technical courses the percentage of
girls was much higher than that of the boys except in Engineering and Art, in
which boys out numbered girls. On the
other hand, of the total enrolment in non-professional courses in the year
1987-88, 48 percent were boys and nearly 52 percent were girls. In the subsequent years, the gender gap
further continued to increase in favour of girls and by 2006-07, the male-female
enrolment ratio became 39:61. Similar trends were observed in the case of
Bachelor’s degree courses in Arts, Science and Commerce streams. Male-female
ratio in enrolment in B.A. degree courses was 32:68 in the year 1990-91. By the year 2006-07, the gender gap further
increased to 28:72. In B.Sc. degree
courses, male-female enrolment ratio was 46:54 in the year 1990-91. The gap further widened to 39:61 by the year
2006-07. The percentage of boys enrolled
in B.Com degree courses was higher (57 percent) than the girls (43 percent) in
the year 1990-91. However, the trend
reversed by the year 1996-97 and the male-female enrolment ratio became 42:58
in the year 2006-07. Gender gap in
enrolment in favour of girls is highest in B.A. degree course followed by in
B.Sc. and B.Com. courses respectively.
At present, the overall male-female enrolment ratio in the general
stream at the Bachelor’s degree courses (Arts, Science and Commerce together)
is 38:62. However, it was found that gender gap in enrolment at the Master’s
degree courses in Goa University, was in favour of boys during the initial
years (between 1987-88 and 1992-93), which reversed in the subsequent years and
by the year 2006-07, 63 percent of students were girls and only 37 percent were
boys. The findings thus revealed that
the girls outnumber the boys at both Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses and
in almost all types of professional/technical courses in the State.
Appointment
of Teachers
In
the year 1985-86, there were only 695 teachers in higher education in Goa. The number increased to 1610 by the year
2006-07, an increase of 132 percent within a period of 20 years. Of the 695 teachers, 70 percent were male and
only 30 percent were female in the year 1985-86. Between 1990-91 and 2006-07, percentage of
male teachers declined and that of female increased leading to reduction in
gender gap over the years. The
male-female ratio of teaches remained at 51:49 in the year 2006-07 i.e. nearly
equal percentage of male and female teachers in the higher education sector. In
non-professional higher education, 69 percent of the teachers were male and 31
percent female in 1985-86. The gender
gap not only reduced over the years but also the male-female ratio got reversed
by the year 2006-07. At present the
percentage of female teachers is higher than that of male teachers. In professional/technical higher education,
only 27 percent were female teachers as against 73 percent male teachers in the
year 1985-86. After 1990-91, the
percentage of female teachers increased consistently year after year and by
2006-07, male-female ratio of teachers in professional/technical courses was
57:43. In Goa University, there were only 53 teachers in the beginning
(1987-88). The number of teachers
increased to 145 by the year 2000-01, registering an increase of 174 percent
over a period of 13 years. After
2000-01, teacher population in Goa University steadily declined and by the year
2006-07, there were only 115 teachers, since hardly any recruitment was made
during the said period. Initially, a
meager 11 percent of the teachers were female and 89 percent male. However, over the years the proportion of
male teachers declined slowly and that of female teachers increased. In spite of this, in the year 2006-07,
male-female ratio of teachers in Goa University was 75:25, still a huge gender
gap in favour of male teachers. The findings presented above, indicated that
there has been substantial increase in appointment of teachers in higher
education in the State. Though two
decades ago, there was a huge gap in male-female ratio of teachers, over the
years gender gap has been reduced significantly and at present the proportion
of male and female teachers is nearly equal, except in P.G. courses in Goa
University wherein the proportion of
male teachers is much higher than the female teachers. In fact, in non-professional courses, female
teachers outnumber the male teachers.
Summary and Conclusions
Expansion
of higher education in
REFERENCES:
Directorate
of Census Operation, Govt. of
Govt.
of
Govt.
of
Govt.
of Goa, Directorate of Planning, Statistics and Evaluation (2006)