Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed that the offshore campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in Zanzibar, Tanzania is slated to open in early November. 

This announcement was made by the minister at a ceremony to award an honorary doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is on a four-day visit to India, according to a report by PTI.

"I am happy that the first offshore campus of any IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) is being set up in Zanzibar. I am told that IIT Madras' Zanzibar campus is scheduled to be inaugurated early next month," the minister said.

Pradhan added that this institute would be a milestone in the educational cooperation between India and Tanzania by “providing students from Tanzania and other African countries access to world-class engineering and technology education, which will help in nation building and drive economic growth, technology, development and research and innovation in Africa.”

The final procedural step that paved the way for the campus was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Tanzania in July.

The institute will offer two full-time academic programmes: a four-year Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a two-year Master of Technology in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI).