CHANDIGARH: In a significant decision, the Punjab Cabinet today gave nod to the Punjab Private Digital Open Universities Policy, 2026 to regulate and promote private digital open universities offering online and open distance learning (ODL) programs thereby imparting quality higher education to the students of the state thereby opening new vistas of employment for them.
The policy aligns with UGC Regulations, 2020, and introduces state-level standards for quality, accessibility, digital infrastructure, data governance, and learner protection. This pioneering policy will expand flexible, affordable higher education and position Punjab as a digital learning hub.
Through this India’s First Historic Reform in Higher Education, The Punjab government has introduced a new Digital Open University Policy. Under this policy, private institutions can establish fully digital universities in Punjab. This is India’s first such policy and so far, only Tripura has set up a digital university, but without a comprehensive policy, so Punjab becomes the first state to provide both a policy and a model in this area.
The policy is need of hour as Crores of students worldwide are learning from online platforms. Similarly, lakhs of students are passing tough exams like JEE, NEET, and UPSC by watching free online lectures. In India too, crores of youth are building careers by learning from online courses and AI apps but the existing university policy only allowed physical campuses.
This meant digital-first universities were not legally possible in India, as a result, students got formal degrees from colleges but learned key skills online thereby creating a huge gap between the two but the new policy bridges this gap. Now students can complete their entire degree from home on mobile or laptop and these degrees will be legally valid and compliant with AICTE/UGC standards. This will prove to be boon For students or professionals busy with life, family, or jobs as they will be able to Complete degrees without quitting jobs, Without changing cities and even Without going to classrooms.
Thus a New Era of Lifelong Learning and Upskilling will be heralded thereby strengthening the culture of continuous learning in fields like IT, AI, Business, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Data Science. For setting up these Digital Universities atLeast 2.5 Acres of Land, digital content studios, control rooms, server rooms, and operations centers, State-of-the-Art Digital Infrastructure and others will be required. Likewise, every digital university must have Digital content creation studios, IT server rooms, Learning Management System (LMS) operations center, Digital examination control rooms, Tech-enabled call centers, 24×7 student support systems and a Minimum ₹20 Crore Corpus Fund. This will ensure that Only serious and capable institutions come forward for this adding that Separate bills will be introduced in the Punjab Assembly for every approved proposal, ensuring each digital university is legally strong and transparent.
This policy is modeled on the world’s successful digital universities like Western Governors University (USA), University of Phoenix (USA), Walden University (USA), Open University Malaysia and others who have provided low-cost, modern, high-quality education to millions of students.