Last week IIT Madras announced opening of its Zanzibar campus in Tanzania and IIT Delhi inked a MoU with Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge to set up an international campus in Abu Dhabi.
But how are these campuses — part of the ‘IITs go Global’ campaign — different from each other?
IIT Madras Zanzibar campus
It will offer two courses to start with — Bachelor of Science (Data Science & Artificial Intelligence) and MTech (Data Science & Artificial Intelligence). These courses will start in October 2023.
The BSc costs $12,000 per year (about Rs 10 lakh per year) and the MTech costs $4,000 per year. Accommodation charges are extra.
Preeti Aghalayam, an IIT Madras alumna and professor in its Department of Chemical Engineering, has been appointed as the director of the Zanzibar campus. She is also the first-ever woman to be a director at any IIT.
IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus
It hasn’t announced which all courses it will offer, but degrees will be offered starting 2024, details of which will be presented in due course of time. The courses at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus will cover areas such as energy & sustainability, artificial intelligence, computer science & engineering, healthcare, mathematics & computing and other disciplines of engineering, sciences & humanities.
Prof V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, had earlier told FE that the aim of the Zanzibar campus is to teach students of Tanzania and of nearby African countries the best of engineering and science. Education experts told FE that while these campuses will cater to local students, these will also attract people of Indian origin who have been living in Tanzania and Abu Dhabi. Both these IITs, however, have a similar goal, i.e. contribution to global educational excellence.