Despite some improvement in enrolment rates over the decades, at the end of 2002 hardly 9.28 per cent of boys and 6.71 per cent of girls belonging to the relevant age-group population in the country had been enrolled in higher education institutions. It is against this background that this study has made an attempt to examine whether it is the demand-side constraint in terms of lack of demand for higher education or the supply-side constraint in the form of inadequate access to higher education that is more important in explaining the low level of enrolment. This has been examined particularly in the context of women as the female student rate of participation in India has been much lower than that of the males at all levels of education.