The key objectives of RUSA are to improve access, equity and quality in higher education through planned development of higher education at the state level. Objectives include creating new academic institutions, expanding and upgrading the existing ones, developing institutions that are self-reliant in terms of quality education, professionally managed, and characterized by greater inclination towards research and provide students with education that is relevant to them as well the nation as a whole.

The salient objectives of RUSA are:

• Improve the overall quality of state institutions by ensuring conformity to prescribed norms and standards and adopt accreditation as a mandatory quality assurance framework
• Usher transformative reforms in the state higher education system by creating a facilitative institutional structure for planning and monitoring at the state level, promoting autonomy in State Universities and improving governance in institutions
• Ensure reforms in the affiliation, academic and examination systems
• Ensure adequate availability of quality faculty in all higher educational institutions and promote capacity building at all levels of employment
• Create an enabling atmosphere in the higher educational institutions to promote research and innovation
• Expand institutional base by creating additional capacity in existing institutions and establish new institutions, to achieve higher enrollment
• Correct the regional imbalances in terms of access to higher education by setting up institutions in un-served and underserved areas of the country
• Improve equity in higher education by providing adequate opportunities of higher education to SC/STs and socially and educationally backward classes; promote inclusion of women, minorities, and differently abled persons