First IIT campus outside India to be set up in Zanzibar

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has spread its wings and is off to foreign shores with Zanzibar, Tanzania to be the first foreign country to benefit from its expertise.

“The first IIT campus to be set up outside India will be in Zanzibar, Tanzania. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up a campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar was signed between the Ministry of Education, Government of India, IIT Madras and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar, Tanzania on July 5 2023,” according to an official statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

The MoU was signed in the presence of Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar; programmes at the new campus could commence in October 2023.

“This unique partnership will bring the top-ranked educational expertise of IIT Madras to a prime destination in Africa and serve the imperative current needs of the region. The academic programmes, curricula, student selection aspects and pedagogical details will be finalised by IIT Madras, whereas the capital and operating expenditure will be met by the Government of Zanzibar-Tanzania,” the release noted.

The first IIT was formally established in India way back in 1951 in Kharagpur, West Bengal, following a report by a 22-member committee headed by industrialist and economist N R Sarkar that recommended the establishment of four higher technical institutions in the Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern regions, possibly on the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, with a number of secondary institutions affiliated to it. These higher technical institutions were supposed to aid the post-war industrial development of India, according to a post by IIT Kharagpur. Over the years, the number of IITs have multiplied and at present there are 23 IITs all over India.

IIT Madras degrees will be awarded to students enrolled in the Zanzibar campus. The state-of-the-art interdisciplinary degrees are expected to attract a diverse cohort and will include students from Africa and other countries as well, with Indian students also eligible to apply, the release stated. “This campus is reflective of the longstanding friendship between India and Tanzania and a reminder of the focus India places on building people-to-people ties across Africa and the Global South,” the release said.

The decision to open an IIT campus in Zanzibar is in line with India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which focuses on internationalisation and recommends that high performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries. “The setting up of an IIT campus shall also enhance India’s reputation globally and its diplomatic relationships and expand the international footprint of IIT Madras. It is also likely to enhance the quality of IIT Madras education and research further, due to student and faculty diversity from the international campus. It will further serve to deepen research collaborations with other top-ranked academic institutions world-wide,” the MEA said.

The IIT campus in Zanzibar- Tanzania is envisioned as a world class higher education and research institution with a broader mission to develop competencies in response to emerging global requirements, deepen ties between nations, and support research and innovation in the region, the release said. “It will serve as an example to the world, of the aspirational qualities of Indian higher education and innovation,” it added.

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