Top officials of the institute on Friday said IIT Madras is exploring options to take its master’s programs to foreign shores by tying up with reputed global universities instead of setting up campuses abroad.
While talks are on with several foreign universities in this regard, IIT Madras is also set to welcome 45 international students to its campus. These students will pursue a full-time postgraduate degree in the academic session 2022-24.
Selected students from over 500 applicants from 55 countries have taken full-time foreign student attendance at the IIT-M campus to an all-time high. And the launch of the “International Interdisciplinary Master’s Degree Program (I2MP)” has been instrumental in the growth of foreign student numbers.
“We are constantly trying to reach out to foreign universities and build research networks, launch simultaneous publications, and improve. It cannot happen overnight but we are slowly and steadily improving. We are also opening a youth international faculty scheme, where we are trying to invite people from abroad to come and do teaching work,” said Professor V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras Indian Express on Friday.
Nine PG degree courses are offered under the I2MP basket in the areas of nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, data science, computational engineering, robotics, quantum science and technology and cyber physical systems.
Next month, IIT-M, which is the best higher educational institution in the country according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2022, will launch a dual degree program with the University of Kathmandu in the field of “energy systems”, Prof. Kamkoti added.
But the institute plans to expand its global presence in new ways as well.
IIT Madras Dean (Global Engagement) Professor Raghunathan Rengasamy said IIT-M is currently exploring hybrid models to expand in “reasonably cheap fashion”.
This is different from the model offered by IIT Delhi, which has proposed to the education ministry to allow it to set up campuses in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Prof Kamakoti said the IITs would soon unveil a plan on a possible expansion model.
“Very soon we will come out with a plan on how to do this and whether a single IIT should expand overseas or a collection of IITs should jointly do so,” he said. Prof Rengasamy said that establishing physical presence through satellite complexes incurs high cost.
“Institutions known for the high infra, satellite campus model, we are trying to figure out how to do it fairly cheaply. Where selection, courses, assessment and degrees will be offered by IIT Madras, but a student will not have to move to India, or IIT Madras will not be required to set up a campus abroad.
We are in touch with many partners in many countries,” Prof Rengasamy said.
Incidentally, IIT-M’s PG programs were earlier also open to international students, but there were very few people for it. “Earlier, the numbers were less as international students found GATE difficult. About three years ago, we dropped that requirement and instead started doing rigorous interviews for such applicants. But the last two years saw disruptions due to COVID-19Prof Rengasamy said.