ABSTRACT
The landscape of higher education in India includes universities, colleges and independent institutions. University and university-level institutions are those empowered to award degrees under an Act of Parliament or State Legislature. In addition, the Distance Education Council (DEC), established for the promotion and coordination of the open university and distance education system, and for determination of its standards, is responsible for data on higher education from distance learning institutions. Institutions of higher education have been categorized based on a range of criteria depending on the source. Distance learning also includes many technical courses, however with no clear definition of technical or professional education given by the government/regulator; aggregation across different data sources is problematic. Since the ability of the government, both at the central and state level, to monitor and ensure quality standards has not risen commensurately, it is possible that there has been a serious fall in aggregate standards.
