PEARL ACADEMY

Pearl Academy of Fashion was established in 1993 by Little People Education Society, the education arm of House of Pearl Fashion. In 1995, it began offering degrees validated by the United Kingdom's Nottingham Trent University, but in July 2012 the University Grants Commission (India) instructed Pearl Academy to stop awarding these joint degrees, citing complaints against private institutes. In 2015, further concerns arose when an alumna reported that the Association of Indian Universities refused to recognize her Pearl Academy degree. In terms of ownership, Pearl became part of the US-based Laureate International Universities network in 2011. Laureate later sold Pearl Academy to the Netherlands-headquartered Global University Systems in July 2019, as part of a larger deal covering Laureate's Indian business, which also included the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies. Since the acquisition, Global University Systems has partnered with Pearl Academy and UPES through its Indian subsidiary, GUS Global Services. As of January 2021, Pearl Academy operates campuses in four Indian cities: Mumbai, Jaipur, Bangalore, and two locations in New Delhi (south and west).