mumbai take note that mba or b tech degree from a foreign institute on which you have spent a few years and a couple of lakhs may not have any value at all the latest data available with the allindia council of technical education aicte shows that only two of the 131 foreign institutes offering degrees and diplomas for a range of courses in collaboration with indian partners have bothered to get necessary government approvalsit leaves these institutes open to any action that the government may choose to take more importantly perhaps this leaves the students holding on to degrees and diplomas in management medicine and technology that are not recognised by the public sector and most of the big privatesector employersa ministryfunded survey had found 66 american institutes 59 british two canadian and one institute each from australia switzerland france operating in india in 2004 of these the only two that have actually passed the aicte test are aurangabadbased institution of hotel management ihm and the asia pacific institute of information technology apiit in haryana both institutes offer joint degrees in collaboration with foreign universities ihm has tied up with university of huddersfield uk to offer a ba hons in hotel management and apiit has tied up with staffordshire university uk to offer courses in computer software and multimedia engineeringamong the prominent ones that do not have aicte approval are escpau france which has tied up with the mats school of business and it to offer global mba fox school of business and management temple university usa which has tied up with l n welingkar institute of management development and research ohio university that tied up with christ college institute of management university of wales that has tied up with tasmac institute of management and rotterdam business institute netherlands which has tied up with the dba global business schoolaicte vicechairman r a yadav told toi that enough time had been given to these foreign institutes to get their courses approved they were also served showcause notices however now legal action will be taken on all the institutes that are running these courses without approval he saidmanagements of several universities failed to respond when contacted for their reactions on the issue the aicte a monitoring and approving agency for all technical institutes offering courses in management engineering pharmacy and computer applications had drafted regulations for foreign institutes operating in the country in may 2005 aicte norms are applicable to all foreign institutes collaborating with indian counterparts but the agency has failed till date to ensure that these institutes adhere to indian laws