In this paper, Martin Carnoy and Rafiq Dossani ask how the governance and objectives of Indian higher education have evolved, and whether changes in governance are consistent with changes in the system’s social objectives, and, in their turn, how the governance system, which is a “layered” product of past structures heavily influenced by a series of historical reforms, may impact how current social objectives are realized. These social objectives have included, at various times, at the least, equity, quality, cost effectiveness, and access. For private colleges and universities, historically always part of India’s higher education system, operating financial self-sufficiency is also an objective (a private objective).