The higher education system in India includes both private and public universities. Public universities are supported by the Government of India and the state governments, while private universities are mostly supported by various bodies and societies. Universities in India are recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which draws its power from the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.[1] In addition, 15 Professional Councils are established, controlling different aspects of accreditation and co-ordination.[2]
The types of universities include:
As of 4 March 2022[update], these four types of universities total 1026 universities together. There are universities of some kind in each of the 28 states of India as well as five of the eight union territories: Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Puducherry. The state with the most universities is Rajasthan with 85 universities, and Rajasthan has also by far the most private universities, 52 in number.[10] Tamil Nadu is the state with the most deemed universities, numbering 28,[8] and West Bengal has the most state universities, 35.[5] Delhi has seven central universities, the largest number of all the states and territories.[4]
Apart from the above universities, other institutions are granted the permission to autonomously award degrees. However, they do not affiliate colleges and are not officially called "universities" but "autonomous organizations" or "autonomous institutes". They fall under the administrative control of the Department of Higher Education.[11] These organisations include the Indian Institutes of Information Technology, Indian Institutes of Technology, the National Institutes of Technology, the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, the Indian Institutes of Management and other autonomous institutes. These institutes are not listed below.
Also not listed are institutes which are under the control of the professional councils, without an approval of the UGC, e.g. Agricultural Universities, which are under the control of the Agricultural Education Division of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), one of the professional councils.[12][13]
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also maintains a list fake Universities operating in India. UGC has said that these 24 self-styled, unrecognised institutions functioning in contravention of the UGC Act have been declared as fake and are not entitled to confer any degrees.[14] As of 7 October 2020[update], the list contains 24 institutions.[15]
The table below is correct as of November 2021[update].
State | Central universities[4] |
State universities[5] |
Deemed universities[8] |
Private universities[10] |
Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Andhra Pradesh (list) | 3 | 25 | 4 | 6 | 38 |
Arunachal Pradesh (list) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 10 |
Assam (list) | 2 | 17 | 1 | 6 | 26 |
Bihar (list) | 4 | 18 | 1 | 7 | 30 |
Chandigarh (list) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Chhattisgarh (list) | 1 | 16 | 0 | 15 | 32 |
Delhi (list) | 7 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 26 |
Goa (list) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Gujarat (list) | 1 | 28 | 3 | 50 | 82 |
Haryana (list) | 1 | 20 | 6 | 24 | 51 |
Himachal Pradesh (list) | 1 | 7 | 0 | 17 | 25 |
Jammu and Kashmir (list) | 2 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 12 |
Jharkhand (list) | 1 | 11 | 1 | 16 | 29 |
Karnataka (list) | 1 | 34 | 14 | 20 | 69 |
Kerala (list) | 1 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
Ladakh (list) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Madhya Pradesh (list) | 2 | 24 | 1 | 40 | 67 |
Maharashtra (list) | 1 | 25 | 21 | 21 | 68 |
Manipur (list) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
Meghalaya (list) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10 |
Mizoram (list) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Nagaland (list) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
Odisha (list) | 1 | 21 | 3 | 8 | 33 |
Puducherry (list) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Punjab (list) | 1 | 14 | 2 | 17 | 34 |
Rajasthan (list) | 1 | 24 | 8 | 52 | 85 |
Sikkim (list) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
Tamil Nadu (list) | 2 | 22 | 28 | 4 | 56 |
Telangana (list) | 3 | 17 | 3 | 5 | 28 |
Tripura (list) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Uttar Pradesh (list) | 6 | 31[note 1] | 9 | 32 | 78 |
Uttarakhand (list) | 1 | 11 | 3 | 21 | 36 |
West Bengal (list) | 1 | 35 | 2 | 11 | 49 |
Total | 54 | 443 | 126 | 403 | 1026 |