A nation’s development depends primarily on its financial, social and human development. The financial and social development of any country is dependent upon the quality of human resources of that country. For developing human resource, education is considered as a basic source. Human development refers to knowledge, skills and experience of the population in the country. Also, it has a powerful impact on the socio-economic growth of the nation. Therefore, higher education is a key for nurturing professionals who will be capable of tackling upcoming challenges. Post-independence, higher education in India has gone from strengths to strengths. Although the future of the higher education sector looks bright, there are many challenges in various parts of the country for various reasons. For a comprehensive growth, one must dig deep into state-wise numbers and find out the loopholes in the existing system. This state-wise analysis is crucial because all states may not have contributed equally to the national growth. Also, the challenges and their solutions may vary from state to state depending on the local situation. In view of large outreach, the present paper is an effort to analyse the trends in higher education across all states in India, in the last ten years. This paper reviews data collected by the department of higher education; central government of India published by the ministry of statistics. This review demonstrates the trend-lines of student enrolment and number of institutions in higher education, in the last 10 years (2011-2020). Initial screening of data reveals the possibility of growth in the number of women enrolments in higher education. This emphasis is on descriptive analysis and is based on secondary data.

KEYWORDS: Higher Education, Human Development, Student Enrollment.