New IITM campus in Tanzania to offer full-time UG, PG courses

The first academic session at Zanzibar, the foreign campus of IIT Madras in Tanzania, is scheduled to begin from October.

In the first year, IIT Madras will have two full-time programmes at this overseas campus.

The first of these is a four-year Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Second, a two-year Master of Technology program in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Zanzibar is the first and only campus on foreign land set up by any IIT of the country.

Altogether 70 students will be given admission to the Zanzibar campus of IIT Madras in the first year. According to IIT Madras, out of these 70 seats, 50 seats are kept for undergraduate and 20 seats for postgraduate programs.

The application process for the year 2023 batch has started here. Professor V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras who was in Delhi on Monday, said, “The opening of the IIT Madras campus in Zanzibar is a major milestone in the institute's history. We are confident that through this we will actively contribute to the bright future of higher education in Zanzibar.”

An MoU was recently signed between India and Tanzania, paving the way for the opening of this campus in Zanzibar-Tanzania. Prof. Preeti Aghalayam Director-in-charge, Zanzibar campus said, “IIT Madras is proud to bring its deep and long-term education and research strengths to East Africa. The campus is planned in similar terms as Madras, with verdant natural surroundings, state-

Elaborating on this new campus, Prof. Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Dean (Global Engagement), IIT Madras, said, “This is the most significant step forward in the internationalization 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. Opportunities for a full-fledged physical campus abroad were being strongly explored and it is heartening to see the realization of these ambitions.”

The Government of India is offering numerous scholarships for citizens of Tanzania to study in various degree programs at IIT Madras in Chennai, starting from July 2023, he said.

The first school is the School of Science and Engineering, which will host both the planned degrees for 2023-’24 academic year. At this time, a temporary campus with comfortable accommodations for offices, classrooms, auditoriums and student dorms has been identified.

It is located in the Bweleo district in Zanzibar. Dining facilities, a dispensary and playgrounds are planned. The permanent location of IITM Zanzibar is 200+ acres in an up-and-coming area of Zanzibar Island, with the master plan being developed by IIT Madras experts.