The higher education system in India includes both private and public universities.

Public universities are supported by

The types of universities include:

Central universities, or Union universities, are established by an Act of Parliament and are under the purview of the
Department of Higher Education in the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.[3] As of 12 December 2018, The
list of central universities published by the UGC includes 49 central universities.[4]

State universities are run by the state government of each of the states and territories of India and are usually
established by a local legislative assembly act. As of 6 October 2017, the UGC lists 367 state universities. The oldest
establishment date listed by the UGC is 1857, shared by the University of Mumbai, the University of Madras and the
University of Calcutta. Most State Universities are affiliating universities in that they administer a large number of
affiliated colleges (many located in very small towns) that typically offer a range of undergraduate courses, but may
also offer post-graduate courses. More established colleges may even offer Ph.D. programs in some departments with
the approval of the affiliating university.

Deemed university, or "Deemed to be University", is a status of autonomy granted by the Department of Higher
Education on the advice of the UGC, under Section 3 of the UGC Act.[11] As of 6 October 2017, the UGC lists 123
deemed universities.[12] According to this list, the first institute to be granted deemed university status was Indian
Institute of Science, which was granted this status on 12 May 1958. In many cases, the same listing by the UGC covers
several institutes. For example, the listing for Homi Bhabha National Institute covers the Institute of Mathematical
Sciences, the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research and other institutes.[13]

Private universities are approved by the UGC. They can grant degrees but they are not allowed to have off-campus
affiliated colleges. As of 6 October 2017, the UGC list of private universities lists 282 universities.[14]

These four types of universities total 821 universities together. There are universities of some kind in each of the 29
states of India as well as three of the union territories: Chandigarh, Delhi and Puducherry. The state with the most
universities is Rajasthan with 76 universities, and Rajasthan has also by far the most private universities, 46 in
number.[14] Tamil Nadu is the state with the most deemed universities, numbering 28[12] and Uttar Pradesh has the
most state universities, 29.[5] Uttar Pradesh also has six 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.[15] These
organizations include the Indian Institutes of Information Technology, Indian Institutes of Technology, the National
Institutes of Technology, the various branches of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of
Science Education and Research, the Indian Institutes of Management (though these award diplomas, not degrees) and
other autonomous institutes.
Universities by state and type
Central State Deemed Private
State universities universities universities universities Total
[4] [5][note 1] [12] [14]
Andhra Pradesh (list) 0 20 5 0 25
Arunachal Pradesh (list) 1 0 1 7 9
Assam (list) 2 12 0 5 19
Bihar (list) 4 15 1 2 22
Chandigarh (list) 0 1 1 0 2
Chhattisgarh (list) 1 13 0 9 23
Delhi (list) 5 7 10 0 22
Goa (list) 0 1 0 0 1
Gujarat (list) 1 28 2 31 62
Haryana (list) 1 14 6 20 41
Himachal Pradesh (list) 1 4 0 17 22
Jammu and
2 9 1 0 12
Kashmir (list)
Jharkhand (list) 1 8 1 8 18
Karnataka (list) 1 26 14 14 55
Kerala (list) 1 13 3 0 17
Madhya Pradesh (list) 2 22 1 24 49
Maharashtra (list) 1 22 21 10 54
Manipur (list) 3 1 0 1 5
Meghalaya (list) 1 0 0 8 9
Mizoram (list) 1 0 0 1 2
Nagaland (list) 1 0 0 3 4
Odisha (list) 1 16 2 4 23
Puducherry (list) 1 0 1 0 2
Punjab (list) 1 9 2 15 27
Rajasthan (list) 1 21 8 46 76
Sikkim (list) 1 0 0 5 6
Tamil Nadu (list) 2 22 28 0 52
Telangana (list) 3 16 2 0 21
Tripura (list) 1 1 0 1 3
Uttar Pradesh (list) 6 29 9 29 73
Uttarakhand (list) 1 11 3 13 28
West Bengal (list) 1 26 1 9 37
Total 49 367 123 282 821