Chandigarh is known for its quality school education and has evolved into a education hub for competitive exams. It is a major study center for students all over Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Uttaranchal, and also for the students from South-East Asia. The city has delivered excellent result in recent years in all spheres especially the IIT-JEE, CAT, CBSE-PMT an the Civil services.

The colleges in Chandigarh include MCM DAV College for Women, DAV College, Government College for Girls, Government College for Men, Home Science College for Girls, Guru Gobind Singh College, SD College, Government Teacher Training College (Chandigarh, India) and Government Teacher Training College. There are model schools set up by the government in various sectors, originally aimed to cater the needs of each sector.

Chandigarh also houses many preeminent institutes of higher learning, such as:

• Punjab Engineering College

• Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research

• GMCH Chandigarh

• Panjab University

• University Business School (UBS),

Some other notable institutes include:

• Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology (Panjab University)

• University Institute of Engineering and Technology (Panjab University)

• Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology (CCET)

• Chandigarh College of Architecture,

• Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTech),

• National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR)

• Canadian Institute for International Studies

• SAS Institute of Information Technology and Research

Also located in neighboring Mohali, Chandigarh College of Education for Women (CCEW), SASIITR, Chandigarh College of Pharmacy (CCP) and Chandigarh College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (CCHM). The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) located in nearby Mohali is the first national level institute in pharmaceutical sciences with a proclaimed objective of becoming a centre of excellence for advanced studies and research in pharmaceutical sciences. Chandigarh's satellite town of Mohali is home for Centre for Development of Advanced Computing's north most branch C-DAC Mohali that is engaged in research on state of the art topics including Telemedicine. Also, the Canadian Institute for International Studies (CIIS) offers Canadian and New Zealand post-secondary degrees and diplomas for Indian students.