In India, there are 943 universities which fall into four categories — central universities, state universities, private universities and deemed universities. Of the total number of universities, 435 are state universities, 385 are private universities, 46 are central universities and 127 are deemed universities. In addition, there are 23 IITs, 19 IIMs, 31 NITs, 18 IIITs and five ISERs. In Maharashtra, we have one central university, 17 state universities, 18 private universities and 22 deemed universities.

It is expected that 6 per cent of GDP should be spent on education. However, currently education is allotted 3 to 3.5 per cent of GDP. And the amount allotted to higher education is just 0.6 per cent. As a result, there is opportunity for privatisation of education. The then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Vasant Dada Patil in 1983 decided to privatise professional education to curtail flow of students from Maharashtra to Karnataka.

After liberalisation in 1991, the Govt. decided to start private universities. Some institutes providing quality education must be given deemed university status. The clause 3 of the University Grants Act stated the same thing. Thus in Maharashtra, Symbiosis, Bharati and D.Y. Patil universities appeared as deemed universities. Even state government passed special legislation to set up private universities. There are 18 such universities in Maharashtra. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the two states having most private universities.