Like any other country, higher education in India has evolved into various divergent streams such as science & engineering, medical, management, commerce, arts and social sciences. At the highest level, higher education in each of these streams is monitored by an apex body, which is indirectly controlled by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, government of India.

 

There are more than 400 universities/colleges/institutes that take care of higher education in India. Most of them are funded by the state governments. However, Central universities, which are fewer in number, are maintained by the Central Government as they require large funding to maintain their huge educational infrastructure.

 

The engineering and management education in India are monitored and accredited by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) while the Medical Council of India (MCI) monitors and accredits medical education. In the same way, agriculture education and research in India is monitored by the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR). Since teachers play an important role in shaping the future of a child and ensuring the standard of higher education, it is of utmost importance to monitor their training infrastructure as well. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is given the job of monitoring and controlling all the teacher training institutions in India.

 

Admission to different courses belonging to various streams is held every year. Admission notifications for individual universities and institutes are announced usually after the month of Nov-Dec and the admission/entrance tests continue usually till June. Education portals like www.shiksha.com and www.highereducationinindia.com publish updates on notifications from time to time.

 

In addition to universities and institutes, there are some premier engineering, management and medical education institutions in India. These institutions are directly funded and governed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Some of these institutions are the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management). Admission to these institutions is done through all-India common admission tests of which the IIT-JEE, AIEEE and CAT are the most popular ones.