IIT Delhi seeking to open overseas campuses in Arab world

The prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi is exploring opening two foreign campuses – one in Egypt and another in Saudi Arabia. If the proposal is approved by Indian authorities, they would be the first overseas campuses established by an IIT.

This would help IIT Delhi attract foreign students and increase its standing internationally and in global university rankings.

In line with the government’s new National Education Policy, which encourages high-performing universities and institutions to establish offshore centres, the country’s higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission (UGC), earlier this year amended its regulations permitting Institutions of Eminence to set up foreign campuses once they have received ‘no objection’ certificates from the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.

‘Institutes of Eminence’ such as IIT Delhi which receive extra government funding are permitted to start a maximum of three overseas campuses in five years, according to the regulations.

In September last year, while speaking at the convocation ceremony of IIT Guwahati in the north-eastern state of Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country’s leading educational institutions would be encouraged to set up campuses abroad while the government would strive to bring foreign campuses to India to boost education liberalisation and greater international exposure for the sector and students.

Modi hinted at the time that the elite engineering and technology institutions should look at South East Asia expansion and education collaboration.

IIT Delhi has been engaged in discussions with both Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the construction of the two campuses, likely to start once the Indian government gives the go-ahead. IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao has confirmed the institute had sought permission from the Indian authorities to set up foreign campuses.

He said on 6 November, on the eve of the institute’s convocation ceremony: “We are very keen on setting up campuses outside the country and looking at possibilities but the consultations are at an early stage.”

IIT Delhi as a global education player

According to IIT Delhi officials, the institute is waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Education about how to move ahead with the projects. They said the funding was expected to be from the respective governments of the host countries, either directly or through special financing to set up the new institutions.

According to academics, an overseas campus would help IIT Delhi become a global education player and help improve its global ranking. They said IIT’s position in global rankings are not as high as their research prowess would suggest, due to lack of internationalisation. Indian students will also have the choice to pursue a part of their course at the foreign campus, thus expanding their exposure with international courses and collaborations.

Science and engineering bachelors degrees would be offered at the overseas campuses.

But in a break from the norm in India, the engineering bachelors degrees would not be referred to as B Tech (Bachelor of Technology) where selection for these degrees is on the basis of performance of the highly competitive Joint Entrance Examination, as this will not be conducted for the students seeking admission in IIT Delhi’s foreign campuses.

Sources said other international engineering and science entrance exams would be used for overseas campuses.

Pankaj Mittal, secretary general of the Delhi-based Association of Indian Universities, said that the UGC is still making regulations for these joint degrees which will allow students to spend part of the time in India and part of it abroad.

“Although the National Education Policy promotes it and they say that yes it should be promoted, some draft (proposals) came for joint degrees and dual degrees but I don’t know the present status,” Mittal told University World News.

However, she said that it will surely help in attracting foreign students to India as they have been asking for joint degrees for a long time.

In addition, students in IIT Delhi’s overseas campuses will not receive government subsidies, so their tuition fees will be set at the ‘market value’ in the countries concerned.

According to IIT Delhi sources, the students of foreign campuses will not spend more than one year at the Delhi campus during the four years of their undergraduate studies and the fees paid by them in the overseas campuses will not be repatriated to the main Delhi campus.

However, the fees paid at the Delhi campus will remain at IIT Delhi.

IIT Delhi plans to admit about 250 students at each of its overseas campuses at undergraduate level initially but the number of students is likely to increase gradually and later postgraduate and doctoral level courses will also be started, according to the sources.