The Directorate of Higher & Technical Education was bifurcated from the erstwhile Directorate of Education to set up a separate establishment for dealing with the matters pertaining to the Higher Education. The Government of Puducherry, to impart quality higher education has established various colleges in the Government sector and also under various Societies. Apart from this, private initiative in the field of higher education also being encouraged by this Government by providing No Objection Certificate for Private Managements to start Arts & Science Colleges and Professional Colleges.
There is one Central University by the name of "Pondicherry University" located at Kalapet. Most of the Government Arts & Science Colleges, Professional Colleges, Engineering & Medical colleges are affiliated to Pondicherry University. It also offers various courses in its campus.
The national Institute of technology started at Karaikal during the year 2010-11 offering quality technical education makes our students to compete in the international arena
There are seven Government Arts & Science Colleges in the U.T. of Puducherry, they are, Bharathidasan Govt. College for Women, Tagore Arts College, Kanchi Mamunivar Centre for Post Graduate Studies in Puducherry Region, Avvaiyar Govt. College for Women, Arignar Anna Govt. Arts College in Karaikal Region, Mahatma Gandhi Govt. Arts College in Mahe Region and Dr. S.R.K. Govt. Arts College in Yanam Region.
The main function of this Directorate is to deal with the service matters of the Lecturers, their career progression and providing infrastructure facilities to the colleges.