From tiny B-school to 35,000-student university. LPU, the education empire built on an ad blitz

New Delhi: From 280 students in 2001 to 35,676 today, Lovely Professional University (LPU) has come a long way from a small business and IT school in Punjab’s Phagwara. It’s now a university with 86.5 percent of its students drawn from other Indian states.

That transformation began to take shape in 2005, when the group’s network of professional institutes was brought together as LPU under a Punjab law.

A 2010 case study on LPU, based on its own data, records the university crossing 25,000 students by 2009-10, within a decade of its inception. And in a 2023 interview with The Indian Express, LPU vice-president Aman Mittal said the university had initially drawn students largely from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh but later expanded its reach across central, southern, eastern and western India. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) records illustrate the expansion and appeal.

LPU reported 31,526 students in 2021 and 35,676 in 2025. More significant was the changing composition: students from Punjab accounted for 11.8 percent of the total student population in 2021 and 8.8 percent in 2025, while students from other states made up 86.5 percent as of last year.

More than two decades after its inception, LPU is now making headlines over student protests following allegations that a female student was sexually assaulted on campus.

The September 27 protests turned violent, with students damaging property, setting objects on fire and blocking National Highway 44, just outside the campus. Police registered an FIR and formed an SIT to investigate. LPU has denied that the alleged incident took place, calling the claims false, baseless and fabricated.

Meanwhile, LPU rejected the claims circulating about the incident. In a statement issued on Sunday, Registrar Monica Gulati described the allegations as “false, baseless and fabricated” and said misleading information was being spread on social media.

In a subsequent Monday statement, LPU vice-chancellor Jaspal Singh Sandhu said the university was willing to cooperate with the investigation and maintained that there was “nothing to hide”. The university also attributed the unrest to outsiders who had allegedly entered the campus and disturbed the peace.

LPU pro-chancellor Rashmi Mittal, in a video address late Monday, urged students not to blindly believe social media claims and to approach university authorities for clarification. She called the incident “very, very unfortunate,” and alleged that outsiders had joined the unrest. Action would be taken against those involved in the vandalism and disruption, Mittal said. She also appealed to the students to remain calm and focus on studies.

ThePrint has also reached out to LPU founding chancellor and Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal for a comment. This report will be updated when he responds.

Against this backdrop, ThePrint looks at how Lovely Professional University expanded on the back of an advertisement blitz, where it is placed in various university rankings, and what present and former students have to say about life on campus.

Also Read: Charred buildings, broken tiles, anxious students: Inside LPU after its traumatic night of violence

Academic expansion

LPU’s academic profile remains heavily undergraduate-led. Its four-year undergraduate programmes accounted for 23,367 students in 2023-24, nearly two-thirds of its total enrolment.

Its academic spread has also widened considerably. LPU currently offers more than 150 programmes across more than 40 disciplines, from diploma and undergraduate courses to postgraduate and doctoral programmes.

LPU’s rise has also been reflected in the NIRF University category. Its rank improved from 62nd in 2021 to 27th in 2024, before moving to 31st in 2025. Internationally, its Times Higher Education World University Rankings band improved from 1,001–1,200 in 2022 to 501–600 in 2026.

According to the NIRF 2025 university document, placement numbers for LPU’s four-year undergraduate programmes rose over the years. The number of students placed increased from 2,450 of 4,929 graduates in 2019-20 to 4,417 of 5,150 in 2023-24. The median salary of placed graduates, too, rose from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 7.4 lakh per annum over the same period.

Research has followed a different trajectory. LPU reported 2,336 PhD scholars in its 2021 NIRF record, compared with 2,024 in 2025. But the composition of its doctoral cohort changed substantially: full-time scholars increased from 544 to 899.

LPU’s international footprint has grown alongside its national reach. Its 2025 NIRF record shows 1,648 international students, or 4.6 percent of its total enrolment.

The university’s 2025 graduation report says international students represented countries including Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mongolia, Myanmar, Yemen, Morocco, Sudan, South Sudan, Ivory Coast, and Nepal.

An ‘affordable option’—and a heavily marketed one

For some students, LPU’s appeal lay in what they paid after scholarships rather than its headline fee. A former B.Com student who studied at LPU from 2020 to 2023 said the comparable course at Amity cost Rs 30,000-40,000 more per semester, while he found the facilities broadly similar.

“After the scholarship, my fee was around Rs 60,000-70,000 per semester. At Amity, the same course would have cost me around Rs 30,000-40,000 more per semester. I also felt that the facilities at both universities were broadly similar,” the former student told ThePrint.

LPU’s published undergraduate fees vary by programme, from around Rs 80,000 to Rs 1.60 lakh per semester in examples across its current course offerings, while scholarships can substantially reduce the amount students actually pay.

Another former student said LPU offered several forms of financial assistance, including merit- and need-based scholarships and concessions for children of defence personnel and teachers. The student also pointed to the range of hostel options at different price points, from two-seater to five-seater rooms, allowing students to choose according to their budget.

For yet another former student, who studied film production at LPU from 2017 to 2020, the university’s marketing was a major part of its appeal.

According to TAM Media Research data cited by The Indian Express in an 8 August 2010 report, LPU figured among the top advertisers on television and print in the education sector in the first half of that year. The 2010 case study presented at the Strategic Management Forum’s annual convention at IIM Lucknow said LPU was spending Rs 5-6 crore a year on advertising across television, radio, newspapers, the internet and outdoor media, with the campaign aimed at building its brand among recruiters as well as students.

“When I was in Class 12, all we could see were ads of LPU on TV, radio and billboards. When I decided to join a private university, it was the first option that came to my mind,” the former student told ThePrint.

The student, originally from Uttar Pradesh, said LPU’s regional office in Gorakhpur also allowed him to complete the admission formalities without travelling to Punjab. “That also we got to know through advertisements,” he added.

LPU students, alumni divided over campus experience

Students and alumni interviewed by ThePrint offered contrasting accounts of their experience at LPU. Some said the university gave them diverse exposure, good academic and industry opportunities, and access to jobs and placements. Others described campus life as “restrictive”, pointing to the university’s extensive rules governing student conduct and public communication.

LPU’s Prospectus Part C lists as disciplinary misconduct the publication or propagation, through print, electronic or internet media, of any activity considered detrimental to the university, its faculty, staff or students.

It also bars students from giving statements or disclosing information to the media or the public about their studies, other students or “any other matters related to the University”. The same section lists participation in walkouts, strikes, agitations, campaigns or other forms of protest, both inside and outside campus, as disciplinary misconduct.

That question of control over student voices has also surfaced during the latest protests.

Three female students featured in an LPU video responding to the sexual-assault allegations later told media that they were instructed what to say, that parts of the video were edited, and that it was posted “without their consent”. They also said they faced abuse afterwards.

Their claims about the video have not been independently verified. LPU has denied the sexual-assault allegations.

An alumnus quoted above recalled a 2017 protest at the campus after disciplinary action was taken against some students. “Some students were suspended and others were fined. This time also the university will surely take some strict action,” he said.

Media reports from November 2017 confirm that hundreds of students protested, blocked NH-1 and clashed with police after a student was detained over an alleged mobile-phone theft.

Some students said the university needs to take steps to prevent such incidents on campus in the future. “No university will allow such indiscipline. All universities have rules and regulations, so does LPU,” said a present student, who wished not to be named.

Speaking to ThePrint, a second year student of Computer Science Engineering (CSE) said that the university has a strict policy of not letting students speak to the media. “Any information leak is considered blasphemous and the authorities start mistreating you,” she said.

Meanwhile, students’ biggest concern now is safety and security on campus.

“How are we supposed to feel safe on campus after this? The university has announced a 10-day break, so we are going back home for now. But what next? After 10 days, we will have to come back to the same campus. What will change then? How will we know that we are safe?” said a second student, requesting anonymity.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

Powered by शिक्षा खबर Skillogy