UGC Fake Universities List 2026: All 32 Institutions, State by State

UGC names 32 fake universities in its list dated February 2026. Delhi has 12 of them. A degree from any of these has no legal value, whatever the certificate looks like.

Short answer: the University Grants Commission (UGC) currently lists 32 fake universities across 12 states and union territories, in a state-wise list dated February 2026. Delhi has the most (12), followed by Uttar Pradesh (4). These bodies call themselves universities without being set up under any central or state law, so they cannot award a valid degree. The full list is below, grouped by state, with the date we last checked it against the UGC fake universities page.

What makes a university "fake" under UGC rules?

A university in India gets its power to award degrees from a law. Section 22 of the UGC Act, 1956 limits that power to three kinds of body: a university created by a central or state Act, an institution declared a deemed university, and an institution specially empowered by an Act of Parliament. Anything else that awards a "degree" is acting outside the law.

Section 23 goes one step further. It bars any institution outside those categories from using the word "university" in its name at all. So the bodies on this list break the rules twice: they use a title they are not entitled to, and they issue certificates they have no power to issue.

A fake university is not a bad university. It is not a university at all.

How many fake universities are there, state by state?

The full UGC fake universities list 2026

Names below follow the UGC table. We shortened street addresses to the city to keep the table readable. If an institution offering you admission matches a name or a city here, check the full address on the UGC page before you do anything else.

Two things stand out in the table. "Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine" appears twice, once in Arunachal Pradesh and once in Kolkata, so a matching name in a different city is not a reason to relax. And several names borrow the vocabulary of real institutions: "United Nations", "Indian Institute of Science", "Deemed University", "State Government University". The words in a name prove nothing.

Is a degree from a fake university valid for jobs or higher studies?

No. A fake university has no legal power to award a degree, so the certificate does not count as one. Employers who verify qualifications, government recruitment boards and other universities admitting you to a higher programme can all reject it.

The damage usually surfaces late. A student finds out at a government job document check, during a visa or credential evaluation, or when applying for a master's programme. By then the fee is gone and the years are spent. That is the reason to check before admission, not after.

Not on the fake list does not mean approved for online study

This is where most students get caught. The fake list covers only bodies with no legal standing at all. It says nothing about genuine universities that UGC has restricted, and it says nothing about whether a specific programme may run online.

For an online degree, a recognised university still needs UGC-DEB entitlement for that exact programme, in online mode, for the session you join. A university can be legitimate and still not be entitled to offer the online MBA or BCA it is advertising. Our guide on how to check UGC-DEB approval walks through the portal step by step.

The same logic applies to names people search alongside the word "fake", such as Vinayaka Mission, CV Raman, Shri Venkateshwara, Rabindranath Tagore and Suresh Gyan Vihar. None of them appears on the February 2026 UGC fake list. That settles only the first question. Whether a particular online or distance programme from any of them is valid depends on its entitlement on deb.ugc.ac.in for your session.

How do you check if a university is genuine? A three-step test

1. Rule out the fake list. Search the institution's name and city on the UGC fake universities page.
2. Confirm it is a recognised university. UGC publishes lists of central, state, deemed and private universities on ugc.gov.in. The institution must appear on one of them.
3. For online or distance study, confirm the programme. Find the exact programme and mode on deb.ugc.ac.in for the current admission session. Then check the NAAC grade and its validity on naac.gov.in, because online entitlement depends on accreditation.

We run steps two and three for every university we track and publish the result on a single page per university. Start at the edifyedu.in verify tool, or read whether an online degree is valid in India if you are still weighing online against regular study.

Warning signs that an institution may be fake

• It promises a degree in a few months, or "without exams", or backdated.
• It cannot give you a UGC recognition reference or a DEB programme listing, only a certificate image or an "ISO" logo.
• Its name copies a real institution with one word changed.
• Fees must go to a personal account or a UPI handle rather than the university's official account.
• The "university" has no campus address that matches any UGC list.

If an admission offer is urgent and the paperwork is vague, slow down. Real universities publish their approvals.

What should you do if you already enrolled in a fake university?

Stop any further payment first. Collect every receipt, chat, email and brochure, because a complaint without documents goes nowhere. Then file a police complaint for cheating and write to your state's higher education department.

UGC states on its fake universities page that it has written to state governments asking them to act against these institutions. Copy UGC on your complaint through the contact details on ugc.gov.in. If you want to restart with a valid programme, our list of UGC-DEB approved online universities is a safer starting point, and you can compare approved universities side by side.

Sources

• UGC, State-wise list of fake universities as on February 2026: ugc.gov.in/universitydetails/Fakeuniversity
• UGC Act, 1956, Sections 22 and 23: ugc.gov.in
• UGC-DEB programme entitlement: deb.ugc.ac.in
• NAAC accreditation status: naac.gov.in

Last verified against the UGC fake universities page on 26 October 2026. UGC revises this list without notice. Always confirm against the official page before acting on it.