IITs, Other Indian Varsities Mull Opening Campuses Abroad To Cater To Indian Diaspora, Local Student Population: Report

After recommendation of an Education Ministry panel, at least two Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are planning to set up campuses abroad, one each in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Tanzania, reports Economic Times.

The 16-member panel, headed by IIT Council's standing committee chairman K Radhakrishnan, had recently submitted its report to the Education Ministry.

The Education Ministry had set up a committee in December last year with seven IIT directors, besides the director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and vice-chancellors of the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University and University of Hyderabad, among others, to draw up a "draft structure for opening campus abroad by higher education institutions."

Earlier last month, the ministry had circulated a 'concept note' on offshore campuses to all IIT directors as a guiding document for necessary action.

Besides IITs, other institutes are mulling over setting up of the foreign-campus and the plans are at various stages of discussion.

Besides, multiple admission channels including Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) to an offshore version of JEE, have also been recommended to cater to the international and local student population, apart from the Indian diaspora.

Four areas of interest - computer science and engineering or IT; data sciences, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, electrical, electronics; and mining, metallurgy, petroleum and energy - have been broadly identified by the committee.

According to the report, over 20 leading Indian institutes have been tentatively identified to open offshore campuses.

Further, the Education Ministry's noted has also underlined that the offshore campus, though being an independent entity, should preserve its 'Indian brand' as top priority.