UGC — recognised institutions & courses

tip

Status: LIVE — Real-time data from the upstream regulator. Updated on the regulator's publication cadence.

What it does

UGC publishes lists of recognised universities, deemed-to-be universities, and approved courses. Our API normalizes these into a queryable JSON surface with consistent institution IDs, NAAC accreditation grade, fake-university flag, and course-recognition status — the foundation block for HR background-verification (BGV) and edtech enrolment trust signals.

Base URL

https://ugc.sahayakonline.co.in/v1/

Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/health	Liveness probe
GET	/v1/ugc/institutions	All UGC-recognised institutions
GET	/v1/ugc/institution/{ugc_id}	Single institution detail
GET	/v1/ugc/verify?name=<query>	Free-text verify a candidate's claimed institution
GET	/v1/ugc/fake-list	Current UGC fake-universities list

Sample request

cURL

curl -sS https://ugc.sahayakonline.co.in/v1/ugc/verify?name=Indian+Institute+of+Science \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SAHAYAK_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

Python

import os, requests
resp = requests.get(
    "https://ugc.sahayakonline.co.in/v1/ugc/verify?name=Indian+Institute+of+Science",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SAHAYAK_KEY']}", "Accept": "application/json"},
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
print(resp.json())

Node.js

const fetch = (await import('node-fetch')).default;
const resp = await fetch('https://ugc.sahayakonline.co.in/v1/ugc/verify?name=Indian+Institute+of+Science', {
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.SAHAYAK_KEY}`,
    'Accept': 'application/json',
  },
});
console.log(await resp.json());

Sample response

{
  "spec_ref": "spec_05_UGC_Recognition_API",
  "endpoint": "/v1/ugc/verify",
  "method": "GET",
  "results": [
    {
      "ugc_id": "U-IISc-001",
      "name": "Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore",
      "type": "Institute of National Importance",
      "naac_grade": "A++",
      "operational_status": "active",
      "fake_flag": false
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "fixture_mode": false, "url": "https://ugc.sahayakonline.co.in/v1/" }
}

Error codes

Code	Meaning	Recommended action
400	Malformed request (missing required param, invalid format)	Fix request shape. Response body includes error.field pinpointing the issue.
401	Missing or invalid Authorization header	Verify key prefix matches your tier and that the header is Authorization: Bearer ….
403	Key valid but not entitled to this endpoint	Sandbox keys cannot call live-tier endpoints. Upgrade or request entitlement.
404	Resource not found	Check identifier format. Some endpoints return 200 with empty results[] instead of 404 — verify the endpoint convention.
429	Rate limit exceeded	Honor Retry-After header. Sandbox 30 r/m, Starter 300 r/m, Growth 1500 r/m.
503	Upstream regulator unreachable after retries	Live-tier only. Sahayak retries 3× with backoff before surfacing. Implement circuit-breaker on caller side.

Rate limits

Tier	Rate limit	Monthly cap
Sandbox	30 r/min	1,000 live calls (shared across 3 LIVE endpoints)
Starter	300 r/min	10,000 live calls
Growth	1,500 r/min	100,000 live calls
Scale	custom	500,000+

SLA reference

See Status & SLA for uptime targets, latency targets, and incident communication. UGC fake-university list refreshed weekly; institution master refreshed monthly.