In 1882 the Punjab University was established by a Special Act of Incorporation, and in 1887 another Special Act of Incorporation established the fifth Indian university at Allahabad. The general framework of these two Special Acts of Incorporation was similar to the Acts of 1857, though power was given to the Senates of the Punjab and Allahabad Universities to appoint or provide for the appointment of professors and lecturers, a privilege which was denied by the Acts of Incorporation to the first three universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1857.

The first three universities were deliberately intended to be examining universities only, in the same manner and on the same model as the then University of London.

Thereby it ignored an important suggestion of the Education Dispatch of 1854, which suggested the possible institution of professorships for the delivery of lectures in various branches of learning for the acquisition of which, at any rate in an advanced degree, facilities did not then exist in other institutions in India. When Lahore and Allahabad got this privilege in 1882 and 1887 respectively, the Indians asked for its extension to Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, but European officials closely connected with the universities contested it on two grounds.