In which of the following categories the enrolment of students in higher…
2013
In which of the following categories the enrolment of students in higher education in 2010-11 was beyond the percentage of seats reserved ?
Answer: A. OBC students — Concept: A reservation percentage is the minimum share of seats an institution must set aside for a social category. An enrolment share is the proportion of…
- A.
OBC students
- B.
SC students
- C.
ST students
- D.
Woman students
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: A reservation percentage is the minimum share of seats an institution must set aside for a social category. An enrolment share is the proportion of the students actually studying who belong to that category. The two numbers are independent: a category may enrol below, at, or above its reserved share, because reserved-category candidates also win unreserved seats on merit and because enrolment is counted across the whole higher-education system, not only in institutions bound by the central quota.
The comparison to make is therefore category by category: each group’s 2010-11 enrolment share placed next to the percentage of seats reserved for that group.
Seats reserved under central admission rules, against the 2010-11 enrolment shares
Category | Seats reserved | Enrolment share, 2010-11 (AISHE) |
|---|---|---|
Scheduled Castes (SC) | 15% | 11.1% |
Scheduled Tribes (ST) | 7.5% | 4.4% |
Other Backward Classes (OBC) | 27% | 27.6% |
Women | No fixed percentage of seats | About 44% |
Application: The All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for 2010-11 reports the enrolment shares shown in the last column. SC enrolment stood at 11.1% against a 15% quota and ST enrolment at 4.4% against a 7.5% quota, so both groups were still well below their reserved percentages. The OBC share, at 27.6%, stands just above the 27% of seats reserved for that group. The three categories together made up 43.1% of all higher-education enrolment against a combined entitlement of 49.5%. Women, at about 44% of enrolment, are recorded in AISHE as a gender group cutting across every social category, and central higher-education admission fixes no percentage of seats for them, so their share is not measured against a reserved percentage at all.
Result: Among the four categories offered, only OBC students were enrolled beyond the percentage of seats reserved for them in 2010-11.
Cross-check: The mechanism behind this is visible in the later series: the combined SC/ST/OBC share of enrolment kept climbing and reached 60.8% by 2022-23, well past the 49.5% of seats reserved for those three groups together. A category’s enrolment share can run ahead of its quota precisely because its students also occupy unreserved seats.