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—Ishita Roy
In a significant development that sets the ball rolling for IIT Madras’ global campus to start operations this year, India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tanzania on Thursday to establish the first IIT branch abroad, in Tanzania.
The IIT Tanzania campus is expected to open in October 2023, welcoming 50 undergraduate and 20 master’s students in its first batch. The agreement on Thursday was signed between India’s Ministry of Education, IIT Madras and Tanzania’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar. In a tweet on Thursday, External Affairs Minister of India Dr. S. Jaishankar thanked President of Zanzibar Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi for being present during the MOU signing that, he said, reflects “India’s commitment to the Global South.”
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted, “The initiative is an embodiment of PM @narendramodi’s commitment to strengthen South-South cooperation as well as forge stronger people-to-people ties with Africa.”
IIT Madras is expected to launch four undergraduate and five postgraduate programmes from the Zanzibar campus. While IIT Madras will have the lat word on academic programmes, curricula and student selection criteria, the capital and operating expenditure will be met by the government of Zanzibar-Tanzania, the MEA said in a statement. Students graduating from this camps will be awarded IIT Madras degrees.
In an earlier interview with The Indian Express, IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti had said that IIT Tanzania will be a branch of IIT Madras. “Our criteria for establishing campuses abroad include demand for an IIT in the country, support from the host government, and a strong school education system that cultivates talented candidates. Tanzania meets all three requirements, with an exceptional education system and the potential to attract outstanding candidates. We anticipate that IIT Tanzania will draw students from across Africa,” V Kamakoti said.
On being asked about the programmes, he said, “The campus will offer Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees in Data Science and AI (Artificial Intelligence), along with M. Tech programs in Energy Systems and Cyber-Physical Systems.”
“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. Indian students are also eligible to apply to these programs,” reads the MEA statement issued Thursday.
Apart from Tanzania, two more global campuses of IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur are set to come up in Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur.
