|
| 1. |
|
India has one of the largest "Higher
Education System" in the world. |
|
| 2. |
|
Academic Qualification
Framework - Degree Structure. |
|
| 3. |
|
There are three principal
levels of qualifications within the higher education system
in the country. These are Bachelor / Undergraduate level, Master's
/ Post-graduate level and Doctoral / Pre-doctoral level. |
|
| 4. |
|
Diploma courses
are also available at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. At
the undergraduate level, it varies between one to three years in length.
Postgraduate diplomas are normally awarded after one year's study.
|
|
| 5. |
|
Bachelor's degree
in arts, commerce and sciences is three years of education (after
12 years of school education). In some places there are honours and
special courses available. These are not necessarily longer in duration
but indicate greater depth of study. Bachelor degrees in professional
field of study in agriculture, dentistry, engineering, pharmacy, technology
and veterinary medicine generally take four years, while architecture
and medicine, it takes five and five and a half years respectively.
There are other bachelor degrees in education, journalism and librarianship
that are second degrees. Bachelor's degree in law can either be taken
as an integrated degree lasting five years or three-year course as
a second degree. |
|
| 6. |
|
Master's degree
is normally of two-year duration. It could be coursework based without
thesis or research alone. Admission to postgraduate programmes in
engineering and technology is done on the basis of Graduate Aptitude
Test in Engineering or Combined Medical Test respectively. |
|
| 7. |
|
A pre-doctoral
programme - Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) is taken after
completion of the Master's Degree. This can either be completely research
based or can include course work as well. Ph.D.
is awarded two year after the M.Phil. or three years after the Master's
degree. Students are expected to write a substantial thesis based
on original research generally takes longer. |
|
| 8. |
|
The secondary education sector prepares
students in the age group of 14-18 years for entry into higher education.
The number of secondary and senior secondary
schools during 2001-2002 was 1,33,000 with an enrolment
of students of 30.5 million. |
|
| 9. |
|
Student enrolment
in higher education rose from 7.26 million in 1997-98 to 9.2 million
in 2003-2003. As per Economic Survey 2003-2004, there are 1,265 approved
engineering colleges at the degree level. Apart from this, 1034 institutes
offer a Master of Computer Application (MCA) programme. There are
958 management colleges imparting MBA courses. |
|
