MoU signed for setting up of first IIT outside India in Tanzania

Tanzania’s Zanzibar will become home to the first IIT campus outside of India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Thursday.

 

In order to establish a campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar, a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been inked.

 

Wednesday saw the signing of the agreement in the presence of S Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, and Hussein Ali Mwinyi, the president of Zanzibar. Jaishakar is in Tanzania on vacation.

 

The MEA stated that Zanzibar would house the first IIT campus to be established outside of India. IIT Madras, the Indian Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training of Zanzibar, according to the report, inked an MoU.

 

‘This campus is reflective of the longstanding friendship between India and Tanzania and a reminder of the focus India places on building people to people ties across Africa and the Global South,’ the MEA said.

 

It said the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends that ‘high performing Indian universities will be encouraged 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.