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n a bid to expose more of the illegal educational structures in operation in India, the University Grants Commission has unveiled a fresh list of 32 self-proclaimed “universities,” which do not have the proper credentials needed to award degrees. Now, the Central Government has asked the states and Union Territories to take strict actions against these “degree mills.”
This information was disclosed in Parliament during the course of a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday by Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar.
UGC periodically produces such a list within the framework of its legislative responsibilities to ensure the validity of higher education in India. It should be pointed out that this year’s tally marks quite a significant increase from two years earlier when only 21 such entities could be found on the list. Such almost 50 percent increase shows clearly that fake universities keep multiplying in spite of increasing public awareness about the problem and numerous warning notifications.
Delhi can be considered to be the hub of the problem – almost a third of all fake universities registered by UGC belong to this state, at least based on state-wise breakdown reported by various media.
Uttar Pradesh hosts 4 fake universities, followed by states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, and West Bengal which feature a smaller number of universities on the list.
However, some new states, namely Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Arunachal Pradesh made their appearance on the list of fake universities for the year 2026, thus proving that the problem has become widespread not only in typical spots but also in small states and Tier-2/Tier-3 locations.
According to the UGC Act of 1956, the only institutions which are allowed to issue degrees are institutions that are authorized explicitly by the Act of Parliament or a state legislature and deemed-university-status granted to institutions by Central Government. Institutions which are on the UGC list have neither of these credentials although they have the names similar to real universities, sometimes including the term "University".
As you may see, some institutions have names which give an illusion of credibility or even quasi-religious character, like All India Institute of Public and Physical Health Sciences and Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith in Prayag, Allahabad. Some other institutions, like Christ New Testament Deemed University in Guntur, use the name formatting of already existing institutions.
UGC stresses that degrees awarded by these institutions are absolutely illegal and meaningless both in government employment and private sector jobs and academic purposes both in India and abroad.
However, according to the Ministry of Education, some measures have been taken by the UGC against the aforementioned dubious institutions, which include issuance of clarification letters, notices for compliance as well as show cause or warning notices directly to the concerned institutions and public notices put up on the official website of UGC, which would warn the would-be candidates as well as their families.
The real escalation has taken place in the demand made by the Central Government from the state governments regarding action against these self-styled universities.
In this connection, some letters have been sent by the Central Government to the concerned Chief Secretaries, Education Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of different concerned states/Union territories seeking suitable actions to be taken against the said institutions and registering FIRs against those institutions functioning in violation of the provisions of UGC Act. Apart from this, the Centre is also demanding from state governments to institute legal cases against these institutions in an effort to close these institutions down as well as take actions against individuals in the case of fraud and cheating of students.
It is also being told that these states have been instructed to inform the Centre as well as UGC if they have identified other fake universities that have not yet featured in the officially compiled list of such institutions, implying that there may be some other number of such dubious universities that would be higher in number than the official tally.
In his reply, Majumdar has emphasized on the constitutional setup in this context and stated that education is on Concurrent List implying that the Central as well as state governments have joint responsibility in the matter of development as well as regulation of education.
That these fake universities persist or even thrive suggests a deficiency in enforcement structures rather than an awareness problem. Indeed, most of them use aggressive advertising to attract students with low fees and the promise of flexibility or distance learning in order to guarantee placements for their courses, addressing students and families that do not have the means or knowledge to investigate whether the course provider they are signing up with is accredited by UGC, or indeed any other body.
The result is catastrophic for the student unaware that they enrolled in such a school – wasted years and often large amounts of money because their diploma does not count towards government jobs, most forms of private employment and further academic progress.
To this effect, the UGC instructed students and their parents that if they are going to admit into any university, they must first check their website to find out whether that university is fake.
The list of fake universities can also be checked at ugc.gov.in. In this era, with new institutions popping up constantly and the list being updated all the time, the trend is shifting and it has become advisable for educational consultants for the students to check UGC's site directly.
The extent to which this new directive will translate into closures and prosecutions remains to be seen because previous warning signals by the UGC regarding the number of fake universities has not resulted in a decrease in their number.
What needs to be seen whether the state governments actually follow up on Centre's letter with opening FIRs and closures as instructed by the Ministry of Education.
