Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Zanzibar at an event held on 6^th November 2023 at the Zanzibar campus in the presence of Tanzanian officials, Indian dignitaries, faculty and students.

This historic initiative is being undertaken as part of the Government of India’s endeavour to take top quality education system of India to international arenas. IIT Madras Zanzibar is the first ever international campus of an IIT.

The existing campus in Bweleo district, located approximately 15 km south of Zanzibar Town, is equipped with international amenities designed to meet the current needs of students. A permanent campus will be built soon jointly by the Government of Zanzibar and the Government of India.

While initially, the Institute will offer BS and MTech programmes, in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, more academic programmes will be offered in the coming year. In the first batch at IIT-M Zanzibar, students from Zanzibar, mainland Tanzania, Nepal and India have been admitted with 40 per cent of the students being women.

The programmes at IIT-M Zanzibar are open to students of all nationalities, including Indians. Apart from a comprehensive curriculum that includes all aspects of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, students will have access to several interesting opportunities during their course of study. These include study abroad/semester exchange programmes with IIT Madras’ partner institutions in the UK and Australia, among other countries, internships with various relevant companies and a chance to meet some of the course requirements at the IIT Madras campus in Chennai, India.