Gender inequality in successful completion of higher education: evidence from a longitudinal study in India

Based on the Young Lives longitudinal study in India, gender differentials in completion of higher education (HE) among 26 year olds are explored in this paper. The binary logistic regression reveals that young women are significantly less likely to complete HE compared to men. Further analyis shows that women and youth from socially diadvantaged caste groups as well as bottom tercile households are lower probability of completing HE. The Fairlie decomposition model expals 32% of the gender gap, with 20% gap explained by type of school attended at age 15 and mathematics score explaining 70% of the gap.This paper is particularly important from a policy persoective as the National Education Policy 2020 is rolled out with a focus on lifelong learning.