New Delhi: Technical education institutes and B-schools competing with each other to find partners abroad have run into trouble with the authorities terming many such ties-ups as illegal.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the regulator of technical educational institutions in India, has since late June served notices to over 104 institutes for partnering foreign universities without AICTE's approval.

The AICTE has also served notices to 169 other institutes, including some of the big names in the private education sector, for conducting unauthorised technical courses.

Perturbed over the spate of advertisements by private educational institutes during the admission session, the government in April asked AICTE to take action against those making false claims, especially about their foreign alliances and deemed university status.

The state governments, too, were asked to take action against institutes that have unauthorised alliances and ran courses without proper approval.

"Very few such institutes have sorted out the issue with us," said one AICTE official. Most of these institutions are in Delhi, Maharashtra and the southern states.

"We have asked states to close down institutions and take legal action against those who have violated the norms," the official told IANS.

Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh in April expressed his strong reservations about the foreign tie-ups of many private educational institutes.

The government later asked the AICTE to make its regulations for foreign institutes' entry stricter.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) was also asked to adopt stricter norms for granting deemed university status.

Since then, the AICTE has been collecting information in newspaper announcements, websites, complaints received from students, the public and other sources on institutes conducting technical courses.

According to AICTE's 2005 regulations for foreign universities entry into India, it can monitor the operations of foreign institutes that provide technical education in India.

The regulations also apply to Indian universities and institutes.

"Any other educational activity carried out in India, in any manner, by a foreign university or institution is also regulated by the AICTE," the official said. IANS