Nagpur is a major education centre in Central India and attracts students from all over the country. Founded in 1923, Nagpur University (recently renamed Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University) is one of the oldest in the country, and has geographical jurisdiction over the five districts of Nagpur division in addition to giving affiliation to hundreds of colleges. The city is also home to three medical colleges - the Government Medical College, Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, and privately run NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences. Additionally, Nagpur has several reputed engineering colleges like the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) (which is now a deemed university) and the Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT), as well as several reputed public as well as private colleges like Hislop College and Shivaji Science College. And last but not least, a National Fire Service College that runs the country's only graduation course in Fire Engineering and a world-class 25-acre campus of the Indian Institute of Management Technology (IMT) are some of the more elite institutions situated in Nagpur.

In addition to the large number of colleges, Nagpur also has a number of fine schools that offer education through Marathi, Hindi, and English media. In recent times there has been a spurt of privately funded schools affiliated with CBSE (Central Board for Secondary Education).

Nagpur city had a literacy rate of 89.3% in 2001, the highest among all Indian cities. However, like the rest of India, female literacy lagged behind that of males.