Landscape of Higher Agricultural Education in India 2020

Abstract

Enhancing quality of human resource is a pre-requisite for implementing and upgrading research programmes, developing technologies, evolving institutional arrangements to face challenges and harness opportunities in the agriculture sector. To cater to the requirement of talented pool in the field of agriculture and allied science disciplines in the country, the Agricultural Education Division of ICAR annually conducts All India Entrance Examination for Admission (AIEEA) to undergraduate [AIEEA (UG)] and postgraduate [AIEEA (PG)] programmes along with the All India Competitive Examination for admission to doctoral degree programmes [AICE-JRF/SRF(PGS)] in Agriculture and Allied Science subjects in the accredited universities under the ICAR-AU system. The basic objective of these examinations is to curtail academic inbreeding in agricultural education by promoting national integration through mobility amongst students, infuse merit, encourage talent and promote uniform examination standards across the universities thereby leading to an overall improvement in the quality of Higher Agricultural Education in the country. In 2019, ICAR conducted 24th All India Entrance Examination through NTA in LAN based CBT mode for filling 2,784 seats in UG, 3,075 seats in PG and 905 seats in Ph.D. programmes in 67 Agricultural Universities. The number of applicants for AIEEA (UG)-2019 and AICE-JRF/SRF(PGS)-2019 registered a remarkable increase of 60.45% and 49.40% respectively in comparison to preceding year’s examination conducted by the Council in offline mode. There was 9.22% increase in the number of applicants for AIEEA (PG)-2019 in comparison to last year. The percentage of candidates for AIEEA (UG) from rural areas has more or less remained static at least over the last three years warranting shift in strategies to popularise agricultural education amongst the rural youths/students in the country. The present report containing an assessment of the past examination trends and providing insights into future examination trends is the third in the series on Examination Statistics published by the Agricultural Education Division. The earlier publications; All India Entrance Examination for Admission to Bachelor and Master’s degree programmes (AIEEA-UG & PG) in Agriculture & Allied Sciences and SRF(PGS) – At a Glance and Talent for Responsive Agriculture encompassed Examination Statistics for the Academic Session 2007-08 to 2012-13 and 2007-08 to 2013-14, respectively. The present publication containing Examination statistics from 2014-15 through 2019-20 is expected to provide necessary inputs for evidence-based policy making. This publication is also intended to provide pointers to the low performing universities so that they can take required curative measures in order to offer a competition to the universities giving better performance