ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the trends and patterns in the public expenditure on higher education in India during the decade beginning from 2000-01, which could be described as the second decade of structural reforms in India. Countries with high levels of public expenditure on higher education have been found to have progressed in developing strong and vibrant higher education systems and in their contributing to growth and development of the economy. In the 1990s, higher education was subjected to severe budget cuts leading to steep decline in the total and per-student expenditure share of higher education in government expenditure and also in gross domestic product (GDP). The declining trend or slow growth in the first half of the decade was reversed during the later part of the decade mainly because of a very significant increase in allocation to higher education in the Eleventh Five Year Plan, which was actually described as an 'education plan'.
