Understanding the Structure of Higher Education Institutions in India

India’s higher education system is among the largest and most complex in the world. With over 1,300 universities and more than 45,000 colleges spread across the country, it serves millions of students every year. Yet, for many – students, educators, and policymakers alike – the underlying architecture of this system remains unclear. Who establishes these institutions? Who regulates them? And how do they differ from one another? Understanding this structure is foundational to grasping how higher education actually functions in India.

An overview of higher education in India 🔗

According to the Department of Higher Education, higher education in India is a shared responsibility of both the Central and State governments. The coordination and determination of standards in universities and colleges is entrusted to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other statutory regulatory bodies. The Central Government provides grants to the UGC, establishes Central Universities, and is responsible for declaring institutions as “Deemed-to-be Universities” on the recommendations of the UGC.

The structure of Indian higher education is best understood as a three-layered system: universities at the apex, colleges in the middle, and the courses offered within them. As outlined by Study in India, universities and colleges work together with regulatory and accreditation bodies to deliver standardised education. The primary regulatory framework is overseen by:

• University Grants Commission (UGC): The apex statutory body, established in 1956, responsible for coordinating, determining, and maintaining the standards of teaching, examination, and research in university education. Meeting UGC criteria is mandatory for degree-awarding authority.
• All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE): Regulates technical education, including engineering, management, and architecture.
• National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC): An autonomous body set up by the UGC that evaluates and accredits institutions based on quality parameters.
• National Board of Accreditation (NBA): Focuses on programme-level accreditation, particularly for technical and professional courses.

Beyond these bodies, as noted by Lexology, India’s higher education framework is also characterised by overlapping central and state regulation – the Central Government sets academic and quality standards, while State Governments retain legislative authority to establish and regulate universities within their territories.

Types of higher education institutions 🔗

The Department of Higher Education identifies four main categories of university-level institutions in India: Central Universities, State Universities, Deemed-to-be Universities, and Institutions of National Importance. Each operates under a different statutory framework and serves a distinct purpose.

Central universities 🔗

Central universities, also called Union universities, are established by an Act of Parliament and fall under the purview of the Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education. They are funded by the Union Government and are primarily oriented towards research, national-level academic standards, and interdisciplinary education. As of November 2023, the UGC lists 56 central universities, with notable examples including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the University of Delhi, and Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Delhi alone has seven central universities, the largest concentration in any state or union territory. Because these institutions receive substantial central funding, tuition fees are generally kept lower than at private institutions.

State universities 🔗

State universities are established by Acts of State Legislatures and are primarily funded and governed by their respective state governments. State universities are run by the state government of each of the states and territories of India. They form the largest segment of the Indian university system and primarily serve regional educational needs. The oldest among them – the University of Calcutta, the University of Madras, and the University of Mumbai – were all established in 1857. Most colleges across the country are affiliated to state universities, which makes this category critical to the everyday experience of undergraduate students.

Deemed-to-be universities 🔗

A deemed university is not established through legislation but is instead a recognition granted to a high-performing institution. This status of autonomy is granted by the Department of Higher Education on the advice of the UGC, under Section 3 of the UGC Act. Once granted, these institutions can design their own curricula, conduct their own examinations, and award their own degrees. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, was the first institution to be given this status, in 1958. Deemed universities often specialise in particular fields and are sometimes created by industry, with their status reflecting a long tradition of excellence in a specific area of knowledge.

Institutions of national importance 🔗

Institutions of National Importance (INIs) occupy a unique position in the system – they are not officially called universities but are empowered to award degrees autonomously. At the apex of India’s higher education system, these institutions are granted special status through Acts of Parliament. As of mid-2024, there are 171 such institutions, which include 23 IITs, 20 AIIMS, 21 IIMs, 31 NITs, and 25 IIITs. They are funded by the Government of India, receive significantly higher per-institution funding than other engineering or medical colleges, and are internationally recognised for their academic rigour and research output.

Private universities 🔗

Private universities are established through State Acts and funded by private bodies – typically societies, trusts, or companies. They are regulated under the UGC (Establishment and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003, and are listed by the UGC in the Gazette upon receiving the Act. While private universities operate within the same broad regulatory framework as public institutions, they function as unitary, non-affiliating institutions – meaning they cannot affiliate independent external colleges. They can, however, have off-campus constituent colleges within their state, subject to UGC approval.

Affiliation and governance: affiliating vs. unitary universities 🔗

One of the most structurally significant – and often misunderstood – distinctions in Indian higher education is between affiliating universities and unitary universities. This difference shapes how institutions are governed, how academic standards are maintained, and how students experience their education.

Affiliating universities 🔗

The early universities in India, established in 1857, functioned as affiliating bodies rather than teaching institutions. They conducted examinations and awarded degrees while actual instruction took place in affiliated colleges. This model has persisted to a large extent. Affiliating universities manage and regulate a network of colleges, providing academic recognition to institutions across a region or state. They conduct centralised examinations and award degrees on behalf of all affiliated colleges. The University of Mumbai, the University of Madras, and the University of Calcutta are classic examples. Affiliation is primarily governed by the UGC affiliation regulations, though each affiliating university also has its own autonomous regulatory framework to which affiliated colleges must adhere. Most state universities in India function as affiliating universities.

Unitary universities 🔗

Unitary universities have a single campus and mainly concentrate on graduate education, although a few may also provide undergraduate study. They have complete control over their academic offerings – curricula, examinations, and degree certification – and do not rely on affiliated colleges. This allows them to maintain a more focused, research-oriented environment. Examples include Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and, in certain operational respects, the University of Delhi. Unitary universities in India have exhibited relatively more freedom in their nature of functioning as compared to affiliating universities, particularly in terms of academic, executive, and financial autonomy.

The key difference can be summarised simply: in a unitary university, a school or department offers courses directly, while in an affiliating university, it is the college that offers the courses under the umbrella of the parent university. Importantly, autonomous universities maintain affiliation with a government university while enjoying some independence, whereas deemed universities operate independently with a higher degree of autonomy recognised by the UGC.

It is also worth noting that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes replacing the present complex nomenclature of HEIs – such as ‘Deemed to be University’, ‘Affiliating University’, and ‘Unitary University’ – simply with ‘University’, defining it as a multidisciplinary institution offering both undergraduate and graduate programmes with high quality teaching, research, and community engagement. This is one of the most significant structural reforms proposed for Indian higher education in decades.

The role of the private sector in higher education 🔗

The growth of private higher education in India has been one of the defining trends of the post-liberalisation era. The Indian version of education privatisation may be characterised as a by-product of the response to the economic crisis of the late 1980s, which shifted overall policy towards privatisation following the 1991 reforms. Since then, the private sector has grown steadily – and substantially.

Scale of private sector participation 🔗

In higher education, 67.51 percent of 1,385 universities and 37.81 percent of 60,127 colleges in India are private. To put this growth into perspective, more than two new higher education institutions opened in India each day on average over the past decade. The private sector now accounts for roughly twice the number of institutions as the public sector in terms of both institution count and student enrolments.

Why private institutions grew 🔗

The underlying driver is straightforward: when the demand for education in post-independence India rose, the state and central governments lacked the resources to meet it – lacking funds, infrastructure, and teachers – so the government encouraged individuals and organisations to establish colleges and deemed universities. Private institutions initially concentrated in high-demand professional fields: engineering, management, and medicine. Over time, they expanded into arts, sciences, law, and design. The analysis shows that self-financed higher education is the only form of higher education that is growing gradually, while the share of government and aided institutions is decreasing over time.

Benefits and concerns 🔗

Private institutions have meaningfully expanded access to higher education, reduced the financial burden on governments, and introduced greater programme diversity. However, the model carries real challenges. Private institutions often charge higher fees than public institutions, making higher education unaffordable for many students, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. There is also an ongoing concern about quality consistency – since accreditation processes vary across institutions – and about the risk of a two-tier system emerging, where access to quality education is increasingly determined by a student’s economic capacity rather than academic merit.

NEP 2020 acknowledges the role of the private sector in expanding higher education while simultaneously emphasising the need for strong regulatory oversight. The proposed Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) is envisioned as a single regulator with independent verticals for accreditation, funding, and academic standard-setting – a structural reform aimed at bringing both public and private institutions under a cleaner, more effective governance framework.

Putting it all together 🔗

India’s higher education system is not a single, monolithic entity – it is a carefully (and sometimes untidily) layered structure involving Parliament, state legislatures, the UGC, professional councils, and a growing private sector. Central universities drive research and national standards, state universities anchor undergraduate education across regions, deemed universities bring specialised excellence, and Institutions of National Importance represent the country’s highest ambitions in science, technology, and management. Alongside these, private universities and colleges have rapidly filled the gaps left by public capacity constraints. Understanding how these institutions differ in governance, funding, affiliation, and autonomy is not just academic – it directly shapes what students experience, what degrees mean, and how education policy can be made to work better.

What do you think? Given that a large proportion of Indian students study in privately funded colleges affiliated to state universities, how should quality assurance mechanisms evolve to ensure consistency across such a vast and diverse network? And with NEP 2020 proposing to simplify the categorisation of all institutions into a single term – “University” – do you think erasing these distinctions will make the system more effective, or risks obscuring important differences in governance and accountability?

References

1. https://www.education.gov.in/en/university-and-higher-education
2. https://www.studyinindia.gov.in/indian-higher-education
3. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=acd20687-f194-4371-be53-d7f2a79f4e8e
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Grants_Commission_(India)
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_India
6. https://distancelearning.institute/management/organisational-framework-indian-universities/
7. https://www.ierf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/India-Making-Sense-of-Accreditation.pdf
8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375545772_Functioning_of_Unitary_Universities_in_India
9. https://www.onlinemanipal.com/blogs/what-are-the-different-types-of-universities
10. https://technology.nirmauni.ac.in/new-education-policy-2020-highlights-key-takeaways-for-higher-education/
11. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23944811241235138
12. https://educationforallinindia.com/public-vs-private-understanding-the-shifting-landscape-of-indian-education-2024/
13. https://wenr.wes.org/2023/11/higher-education-privatization-in-south-asia-current-trends-and-future-outlook
14. https://www.academiaerp.com/blog/impact-of-privatization-in-the-indian-education-sector/
15. https://educationforallinindia.com/role-of-private-institutions-in-indian-education/