However, the technical education regulator’s new policy, which replaces the one formulated by it in 2003, does not permit foreign institutions to offer their own degrees.

According to the new ‘approval norms’, foreign institutions can set up campuses or collaborate with technical colleges approved by the AICTE anywhere in the country. For this purpose, foreign institutions can also collaborate with any company established under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956,  the new AICTE approval norms say. 

Under the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation and Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 — which the government introduced in Lok Sabha last May and is now pending with a parliamentary committee— foreign institutes can offer their own degrees.

They also don’t need to register as a society or a trust or a Section 25 company as the revised AICTE policy mandates. Societies, trusts and companies registered under Section 25 of the Company’s Act are not-for-profit institutions.

“After being registered as a society or trust or a company under the Act, a foreign institution will have to submit a detailed proposal for approval from the AICTE to run their courses under the new norms,” a top AICTE source said.

Accreditation by an authorised agency in a parent country with acceptable grades where grading is available, will be the condition for a foreign institution interested in starting operations here.

Once approval is given, the foreign institutions will be bound by the AICTE’s advice on
admissions, entry qualifications and the conduct of courses or programmes “as may be communicated to them from time to time,” the source said.

The proposal from a foreign university seeking equivalence of technical courses at various levels for mutual recognition of qualifications for the purpose of imparting such courses in India under collaborative arrangements or otherwise will be considered by the council through its standing committee.