The hill state ofHimachal Pradeshhas one of the highest number of colleges per lakh Population in the country, as per the All-India Survey of Higher Education 2020-21.For every one lakh population in the 18-23 age group in Himachal, there are 50 colleges, suggests the survey released recently by the Union education ministry.
In the survey report,Himachalis placed alongside Kerala, which also has 50 colleges per one lakh population the third highest in the country. Karnataka with maximum 63 colleges per lakh population is at No. 1, followed byTelanganaat No. 2 with 53 colleges.There are a total of 348 colleges in Himachal Pradesh, including private colleges, government degree colleges and Nursing colleges.
The survey report coincides with the Himachal governments move of shutting down colleges that have registered low or zero student attendance from the time they were opened.While there were 132 government degree colleges till December 2021 in Himachal, as many as 23 new degree colleges were opened during the BJP rule in the election year of 2022.