New Delhi: A separate entrance test, admission to non-science students and an annual fee of USD 12,000 (INR 9.91 lakh). This is what the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has planned for its first international campus at Zanzibar, Tanzania, scheduled to open in October.
At a press conference Monday, IIT-M director V. Kamakoti announced the broad contours of the plan. The 200-acre Zanzibar campus will offer two programmes, he said — a four-year Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and a two-year Master of Technology in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
“This is the most significant step forward in the internationalisation efforts of IIT-Madras. A detailed strategic plan that includes increasing the number of international students, fostering meaningful and synergistic joint degree programs with international academic institutions and enhancing faculty/student mobility has been laid out by us,” Kamakoti said. “Opportunities for a full-fledged physical campus abroad were being strongly explored and it is heartening to see the realisation of these ambitions.”
A total of 70 seats are on offer, and the programmes are open to both Indian and foreign students. Students will have to take a separate entrance test, not the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) that aspirants sit for in order to get into any IIT, according to the press statement issued by the institute.
Another significant departure is the educational backgrounds of the students — unlike IITs in India, which require students to have attained a certain score in physics, chemistry and mathematics (that is, all science subjects), students of any stream can opt for the course.
“The Office of Global Engagement, IIT Madras, will coordinate the student entrance process, which will include a screening test developed by faculty experts at IIT Madras and an interview, according to the admission process approved by the IIT-M’s Senate,” the press release said.
The institute will offer scholarships to Tanzanian students.
According to the press release, starting this month, the Union government is also offering scholarships for Tanzanians to take up various degree programmes at IIT Madras in Chennai. IIT-Madras currently charges an annual fee of around Rs 2 lakh.
Preeti Aghalayam, dean of the School of Science & Engineering and director in-charge of the IIT-Madras Zanzibar campus, who also addressed the press briefing with Kamakoti, said: “We have also started conversation with our European counterparts, encouraging them to send their students to the Zanzibar campus given its geographical proximity.”
While the Zanzibar campus will initially have faculty from the Chennai IIT teaching them, Kamakoti said Tanzanian students will be encouraged to take up teaching positions.
“We have made provisions for Tanzanian students to come and pursue doctoral programmes in the Madras campus so that they can go back and apply for positions in the Zanzibar campus,” he said.
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Eye on international rankings
IIT-M’s international foray comes at a time when it seeks to improve its score in QS World University Rankings. The latest rankings showed that the institute had fallen to 285th place, its worst since 2016, and 35 paces lower than last year.
Kamakoti attributed IIT-M’s poor showing to a change in parameters this year. One such parameter, he said, was sustainability.
“The QS Ranking introduced two new parameters to the bouquet this year. However, there may have been some lapse in communication and we were unable to share our sustainability data with the rankings institution. It’s almost like we didn’t compete on that parameter at all,” he said.
He added that the institute was also working on improving its global perception and has taken several initiatives to push its faculty to publish more research papers. “The setting up of an international campus inviting students from around the world will also help improve our rankings.”
IIT-Madras isn’t the only Indian institute that’s been pushing to go global — IIT-Delhi is currently setting up a campus in Abu Dhabi while IIT-Kharagpur is considering Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) — India’s premier business school — is considering a proposal to set up an overseas campus at Abu Dhabi.
The idea of allowing Indian educational institutions to expand abroad and permitting foreign universities to set up campuses in India has been mooted by the Modi government under its sweeping educational reforms, called the National Education Policy 2020.
According to Kamakoti, with the Ministry of Education encouraging Indian educational institutions to go overseas, it’s possible that all IITs will eventually get an opportunity to set up international campuses.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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