Higher education plays a key role is in the process of socio, economic, cultural and technical development of a country. It also improves an individual's quality of life. The main objective of this paper is to examine the progress and present scenario of higher education in India in terms of universities and other higher educational institutions and student’ enrolment. There is a substantial progress in the Indian higher education system during the last seven decades. However, the growth of universities and colleges and its enrolment is not uniform across the different managements, different courses over the period. The demand for private universities and private unaided colleges has been increasing rapidly. As a result, the private unaided management in respect of institutions and enrolment not only increased faster but also undermined the government sector. The Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education in India is 25.8 Percent in 2017-18. However, GER is very low in India when compared to many countries in the world. Student’s enrollment in higher education had increased phenomenally in recent years. Female participation in higher education also increased considerably. Hence, gender gap is very low in higher education as a whole but in case of technical and professional courses the gap is quite more.

KEY WORDS: Higher Education, Enrolment, Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER).