The Indian government has received requests from Bhutan and Morocco to set up offshore campuses of the coveted Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), sources
have told news agency. "We have received requests from multiple countries including Bhutan and Morocco for setting up of IIT's offshore campuses," a source told PTI. To facilitate this, the Central government had created a 17-member committee to facilitate the process of opening IIT campuses in foreign locations where students from different nations can study technical education. This committee was headed by IIT Council Standing Committee Chairperson Dr K Radhakrishnan, and their recommendations were received in 2022. It was after that, that the first offshore IIT campus was set up in Zanzibar by IIT Madras. The Zanzibar campus was the first foreign campus of an IIT to be established outside of India, and the campus is managed by IIT Madras. IIT Madras-Zanzibar is also the first ever IIT that has a female Director, Preeti Aghalyam. Under the leadership of Prof Aghalyam, the IIT Madras Zanzibar campus was launched in November 2023 in a temporary campus. This was followed by IIT Delhi which launched its first offshore campus in Dubai, UAE. Located in Khalifa City, the IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi campus was inaugurated on September 2, 2024. It is also expected that a third offshore IIT campus will be launched next year in Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria in October 2025 held a meeting with the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Abhishek Singh where the two representatives discussed the readiness to collaborate, and the plans to establish a Nigerian campus of the globally acclaimed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). "Nigeria and India are deepening educational cooperation as plans advance for the establishment of the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus in Nigeria," Federal Ministry of Education shared in a post on 'X' (earlier known as Twitter). "The proposed IIT Nigeria campus, to be hosted at the Federal Government Academy, Suleja, will advance science, technology, and innovation education."
