Reading Progress in Attainment of Higher Education Goals in India: Features and Characteristics

This article is an attempt at evaluating the progress in higher education attainment in India, using an innovative approach of reading such progress in terms of varying attainments by age cohorts (older to younger). In addition, characteristic differentials are accounted for in the evaluation of such progress. It reveals that group disparities tend to be lower among the younger age cohorts, and the pattern of social and gender disparities appears to be different in the rural and urban sectors. Gender disparity disappears in the youngest age cohort for the urban sector, while it remains significant in the rural sector, with a reasonable rural–urban disparity in overall progress in higher education. The urban female is perhaps the largest beneficiary of expansion in higher education, while the rural female remains most deprived and has benefitted the least.