A parallel college was a privately owned educational institution in Kerala (a state of India), which is not affiliated to any university, neither recognized by any, but offers training for courses following the courseware of a university unofficially.
These students who pursue a 'private study' do rely on parallel colleges for tuition and guidance.
Such a system had become popular in Kerala because the total intake capacity of the affiliated colleges were inadequate to contain the aspirants for higher (tertiary) education.
Parallel colleges were always small scale institutions with very limited facilities.
But by the end of the 2000s this system has come to a demise, following the state opening the higher education sector to private investors, which has caused a surge in the number of private engineering colleges and other privately owned professional colleges, which leaves many of the conventional (affiliated) degree colleges under-populated, ceasing the reason for the very existence of the parallel system.