A deemed university, also known as a deemed-to-be-university, is an accreditation awarded to higher educational institutions in India by the Ministry of Education’s Department of Higher Education. On the advice of the Supreme Court, the UGC recently prohibited 123 universities from using the word “University” in their names. Some of the universities that were investigated included well-known institutions such as IISc Bangalore, BIT Mesra, and IIFT Delhi. These institutes have received top rankings in their respective fields, with IISC Bangalore named the best university in the country in the 2017 NIRF Rankings. Apart from IITs, IISc is one of the institutes that has found a place in international rankings.

As per the official MHRD website, “An Institution of Higher Education, other than universities, working at a very high standard in the particular field of study, School Analytics can be declared by the Central Government on the advice of the UGC as an Institution ‘Deemed-to-be-university’. ‘Deemed-to-be-university’ institutions have the academic status and privileges of a university.”