In India, the higher education system incorporates both private as well as public universities. The Government of India and the state governments, support the Public universities whereas, private universities are mostly supported by various bodies and societies. With the power from the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, Universities in India are recognized by the UGC (University Grants Commission).
Let’s have a brief detail about the different type of Universities in India:
- Central University: Central University is also known as Union universities, are established by an Act of Parliament. As per Union Human Resource Development Ministry, these Universities come under the purview of the Department of Higher Education. In India, the UGC lists stated that there are 46 central universities. The regions with the central universities in India are mostly in Delhi (such as, University of Delhi, IGNOU, Jamia Millia Islamia, South Asian University, Jawaharlal Nehru University) and in Uttar Pradesh also that have five central universities known as AMU, BHU, BBAU, Allahabad University, Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation Institute. Except Goa and Andhra Pradesh, India have central universities in all of its states. Of the union territories of India, there are central universities in Delhi and Puducherry.
- State Universities: In India, State governments run State Universities of each state and territories of India, which are usually established by an act named as local legislative assembly. As per the UGC lists, India has 350 state universities. In the list of UGC, the oldest establishment date is 1857, which is shared by the Mumbai University, the Madras University and the University of Calcutta. Even most of the State Universities are termed as "affiliating universities" as they administer a large range of colleges that mainly offer a wide scope of undergraduate courses as well as post-graduate courses too. Apart from this, most of the established colleges also offer PhD programs in various departments with the approval of the affiliating university.
- Private universities: Private Universities are regulated by the UGC. They have the authority to grant degrees but they don’t have permission to have off-campus affiliated colleges. The UGC list of private universities described that India have 241 private universities, which are established in 22 states of India only and not in any of the union territories. The large states where no private universities were established are Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Telangana, NCT Delhi and UT Chandigarh, where other types of universities are banned. Rajasthan is the only state that has most private universities with a number of 41.
- Deemed University: Under the UGC Act, Section 3, the Department of Higher Education grants a status of autonomy to the Deemed Universities, on the advice of the UGC. There are 123 universities as per UGC list, that are listed as deemed university in India. According to this list, Indian Institute of Science was the first institute that is granted with deemed university status, on 12 May 1958. Apart from this, in many cases, the same listing by the UGC also covers various institutes. For example, the listing for Homi Bhabha National Institute covers the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and other institutes.
In addition to the above universities, there are other institutions too that have the permission to autonomously award degrees to students, but are not stated as "university" by name. They basically come under the administrative control of the Department of Higher Education and are known as autonomous bodies.
India has 761 universities in total which are established in each of the 29 states of India as well as in the three of the union territories of India. Here, at EducationForever.com, students can find the list of all the Universities in India, along with their complete contact details. Students also have the facility to search for the University as per their desired state or by the type of University. The lists of the Universities are listed below: