The objectives of the study were: (1) To study the historical development and growth of higher education in the state of Manipur at graduate and post-graduate levels in relation to: (a) growth of higher education institutions - colleges and university, (b) Trends in enrolments: general, SC., ST., and women, (c) Increase in number of teachers, (d) Teacher-pupil ratio, (e) Course of study, (f) Infrastructural facilities, and (g) Problems and issues. (2) To find out the opinions of higher education students regarding the present status of higher education in Manipur in relation to planning / administration, infrastructural facilities, course of study, students issues, examinations and co-curricular activities. (3) To examine the view-points of college and university teachers regarding the present status of higher education in Manipur in relation to planning / administration, infrastructural facilities, financing, teachers, issues, and examinations. (4) To find out the main problem areas of the existing higher education system in Manipur on the basis of analysis of the above three objectives. (5) To give suggestions based on the historical study and opinion of the higher education students and teachers for brining about modifications in the higher education system at all levels in Manipur state. 

The sample comprised 200 students from 16 colleges and 11 university departments from Manipur selected by multistage sampling.

Questionnaires were developed by researcher for data collection. The different reports, books and journals were also used for data collection. 

The data were analyzed with the help of content analysis technique and by computing percentages.

The findings of the study were: (1) Manipur, a small state of North-Eastern region attained the status of a separate state in the year 1972. Ninety percent of its area was hill and 10% was valley area. Its population was nearly 24 lakhs (census 2001). Higher education system in Manipur began with the establishment of D.M. College, in 1946. In about half a century since its inception, the system made significant progress. (2) The number of graduate and undergraduate colleges increased to 64 in 1996-97. (3) The enrolment in colleges increased from 60 students in 1947-48 to 43,577 in 1996-97, Manipur had one college student for every 180 persons as against 350 in India, as a whole. (4) There had been tremendous increase in enrolment of girls and SC/ST students. (5) There was inconsistency in the growth of colleges in hills (12) and valley (52) and male / co-educational (57) and female only (7) colleges. (6) The infrastructural facilities, physical facility, equipment for teaching / research available in colleges particularly private colleges were poor both in terms of quantity as well as quality. The quality of higher education in the state deteriorated due to mushroom growth of colleges without proper infrastructural facilities. (7) The diversity of courses both academic as well as vocational was too limited forcing the students to go outside the state. (8) Postgraduate studies started in Manipur with the establishment of a postgraduate center in D.M. College in 1964, in only 3 subjects followed by J.N.U. center of postgraduate studies in 1971. The long cherished desire of the people was to have a university of their own and it was fulfilled in 1980 with the establishment of the Manipur University at Imphal. (9) Manipur university though started quite late but made significant progress. There were 22 departments under three schools of studies i.e. school of humanities, school of social science, and school of science, 11 diploma courses, distance education programs run under IGNOU center, and many other programs. There was tremendous increase in the enrolment of postgraduate students and research scholars and in the number of university teachers. (10) The number of female teachers always remained lower than the male teachers although the number of female students had almost equaled (41.99%) the number of male students. (11) Higher education system in Manipur was still in its infancy and still growing.