In the year 2008, the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) in Hyderabad was designated as a Deemed to be University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. IFHE is a self-supporting, open-access higher education institution (HEI). ICFAI University forbids discrimination based on race, economic status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, religion, caste, age, colour, creed, country or ethnic origin, physical, mental, or sensory disability, and marital status in distance education.

It believes that via creative educational programmes, research, consulting, and publishing, it can create and disseminate knowledge and skills in core and frontier fields. The Distance Education in ICFAI University campus-based Undergraduate, Post-Graduate, and Doctoral programmes in Management, Finance, Science and Technology, Law, and other areas have received recognition and accreditation, indicating that IFHE has established a Center for Distance and Online Education (CDOE) to offer programmes in open and distance learning and online mode.