STEM beyond reach? An analysis of access barriers in India’s higher education landscape

This paper analyzes STEM higher education (HE) access disparities in the developing nation of India. Access to STEM higher education is measured in terms of the higher education age cohort’s attendance and attainment in STEM higher education courses. It analyses the factors that affect the odds of the higher education age cohort’s STEM higher education attendance and attainment in India. It also analyses the factors that affect the relative odds of their STEM higher education attendance in private aided and private unaided institutions as compared to government institutions in India. It uses nationally representative data from the latest two NSS education survey rounds and employs logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression methods. It analyses the change in STEM higher education access between the NSS rounds of 71st and 75th. This paper empirically finds that STEM higher education access in India is still significantly determined by factors viz., ‘economic status’, ‘gender’, ‘location’ and ‘social identity’. However, it highlights the improvement in STEM higher education access of the poorest and poorer economic quintiles between the two NSS rounds. It highlights gender bias in STEM higher education access in India. It underlines the dire need for equitable access to STEM higher education in unaided private institutions in India.