Countries including Bhutan, Morocco express interest in IIT overseas campuses

NEW DELHI: Several countries, including Bhutan and Morocco, have expressed interest in hosting overseas campuses of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), but the government has yet to make a decision, sources said.

Currently, there are two overseas campuses of IIT: IIT Madras – Zanzibar in Tanzania and IIT Delhi – Abu Dhabi in the UAE. The NEP 2020 encourages opportunities for the expansion of Indian higher education abroad.

“We have received requests from a few countries for setting up IIT campuses. However, no decision has been taken so far. We have received requests from Bhutan and Morocco; these include formal and informal requests,” sources in the Education Ministry confirmed.

The NEP 2020 encourages opportunities for the expansion of Indian higher education outside the country. This includes permitting top-ranked foreign universities to establish campuses in India, while also enabling high-performing Indian universities to set up campuses abroad.

As of 2025, two international IIT campuses are operational. IIT Madras-Zanzibar, inaugurated on November 6, 2023, was the first such campus, while IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi was officially inaugurated on September 2, 2024 and is currently operating from a transit campus at Zayed University, with a permanent facility under development.

India is actively looking for further expansion into several other regions. In October, an agreement was reached to establish a campus in Suleja, West Africa, with the first batch of undergraduate and postgraduate students expected to begin in 2026. (ANI)