THE All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which was set up to regulate, monitor, plan and coordinate the technical education system in the country, has cautioned students to be wary of distance education institutions offering programmes in the open and distance learning (ODL) mode, which do not follow the stipulated norms and standards set by the joint committee of AICTE, University Grants Commission (UGC) and Distance Education Council (DEC).

For any programme run under ODL mode by deemed universities and others, an approval by UGC-AICTE-DEC Joint Committee is mandatory. Also note that Ministry of HRD has already announced (Gazette No. 44/March 1995) that all the qualifications awarded through Distance Education by the Universities are automatically recognised for the purpose of employment in central government offices and for all purposes of higher education, provided it has been approved by DEC.

Information related to Government of India approved off-campus(s), off-shore campus(s), constituent unit(s), institution(s) and programme(s) is available on the following websites: www.ugc.ac.in; www.dec.ac.in; and www.aicte-india.org

Here  is the official notification by AICTE, which appeared in The Times Of India on July 2, 2010