UK and EU accreditation for training institutes in India

Why Indian institutes ask about this

If you run a private institute in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune or Kolkata, or you are already an OTHM or Qualifi centre in India, this is written for you.

Most of the Indian schools that write to us are doing well at home. They teach management, finance, hospitality or IT to working adults, and a good share of their learners want jobs in the Gulf, the UK or Europe. A certificate with a UK or European level on it helps those learners get past the first screening. It also helps the school stand out in a crowded local market where every competitor says its courses are "international".

The harder question is what the certificate means inside India. That is decided by Indian rules, and they changed in 2025.

What Indian rules say about foreign qualifications

On 4 April 2025 the University Grants Commission notified its regulations on recognition and equivalence of qualifications from foreign educational institutions. They replaced the old practice where the Association of Indian Universities issued equivalence certificates. Three clauses matter for a training provider:

• A "qualification" under the regulations means a certificate, diploma or degree awarded by a competent authority, so it is not only about degrees.
• Qualifications obtained through a franchise arrangement "shall not be considered for recognition for the purposes of grant of equivalence."
• Medicine, pharmacy, nursing, law and architecture are carved out entirely; those professions have their own regulators.

There is a second rulebook for foreign universities that open a campus in India, from 2023. Those campuses teach full-time, in person, and the UGC chairman has said in public that franchising a foreign degree to a local college is not allowed.

Skills training is NCVET's territory. It recognises awarding bodies, and their qualifications are meant to line up with the National Skills Qualifications Framework. Its 2024 draft guidelines said a foreign entity would have to apply through an Indian subsidiary. We could not confirm whether that draft has since been made final, so check it before you plan around it.

Sources: UGC regulations of 4 April 2025 (Gazette text), NCVET, linked below. Checked 28 October 2026.

The three routes, seen from India

Route 1: teach a UK qualification as an approved centre

This is where most Indian institutes start, and for good reason. Centre approval is far quicker than building a qualification of your own, the awarding organisation provides the specification and assessment rules, and your learners finish with a qualification listed on Ofqual's Register. Ofqual's position is that a regulated qualification stays regulated when learners take it outside England, so long as it is also taken by learners in England. Check the Register entry before you sign.

The cost is control. The syllabus is the awarding organisation's, so your own course becomes the teaching around their qualification rather than the qualification itself.

Route 2: put your own programme on a UK framework

If you have built your own diploma or professional qualification, each of the four UK nations has a way to give it a level. They are not equally open to a school whose learners are all in India. In Scotland, a credit rating body can place it on the SCQF with credit points, one for every ten notional hours. In Wales, a CQFW competent body can endorse it and confirm its level. England and Northern Ireland are harder. An awarding organisation can make your programme a regulated qualification, but there is a snag: Ofqual says it can't regulate one that nobody sits in England or Northern Ireland. If all your learners are in India, that rules it out. And whoever you go to will ask to see the outcomes, the assessment and how you check quality. Each body sets its own fees and its own rules on programmes from abroad, and we ask before any work begins.

Route 3: accredit your own programme in Malta

Through our partner institute, your programme is submitted to MFHEA under the institute's licence. If MFHEA approves it, learners study most of it online from India, attend a short classroom block in Malta, and receive an award issued by the institute with your school named as delivery partner. The institute's current licence covers Levels 1 to 4. Higher levels depend on MFHEA approving its extension to higher education.

Most Indian passport holders need a Schengen visa for the Malta weeks, and consulates can be slow, so we lock the dates in months before an intake.

What we would suggest

• Learners chasing jobs in Dubai, London or Dublin? Either a UK diploma or a Malta award can help. Pick based on whether you want to teach someone else's syllabus or your own.
• For a government job in India, or a place at an Indian university, these routes will not help. Say so in your marketing.
• If you are building your own professional qualification, write the full programme first: outcomes, hours, assessment and quality assurance. A set of exam papers is not enough for any rating body or regulator.

Apollo Accreditation is a consultancy. It is not a regulator or an awarding organisation and does not award qualifications. Indian rules change, so confirm the current position with the UGC or NCVET before you act on it.