1st IIT Campus Outside India in Tanzania’s Zanzibar

New Delhi: Tanzania’s Zanzibar will have the first IIT campus outside India, announced the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday. IIT Madras will set up this campus in Zanzibar.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Wednesday in the presence of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Zanzibar’s President Hussein Ali Mwinyi. Jaishankar is now on a visit to Tanzania.

The MoU was signed between India’s education ministry, IIT Madras and Zanzibar’s ministry of education and vocational training.

“The first IIT campus to be set up outside India will be in Zanzibar,” the MEA said.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 encourages “high-performing Indian universities” to set up campuses in other countries.

“Recognising the strategic partnership between Tanzania and India, the relationship of educational partnership has been formalised by signing the document which provides the framework for the parties to detail out the setting up of the proposed campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar-Tanzania, with plans to launch programmes in October 2023,” the MEA said.