The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), India’s top-ranked engineering institute, will open a branch campus in Sri Lanka this year, as part of the ongoing expansion of IITs abroad.
The proposal for the new campus was announced last November in the 2024 Budget unveiled by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who also serves as Finance Minister. The campus will be set up in Kandy.
Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha has outlined plans by his Ministry to send a team of academics to IIT Madras prior to the arrival of the team from the IIT in Sri Lanka next month for discussions on setting up the campus.
Minister Premajayantha said the IIT Madras team would present a report to Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission (UGC) outlining its courses and initiating the process of establishing the Kandy branch campus. “The establishment of the university branch will help Sri Lankan students pursue their higher studies at an affordable price locally instead of travelling overseas,” he said, and added that IIT Madras degrees carried wide recognition, leading to secure employment.
“The Indian Government already extends scholarships and fellowships to students from Sri Lanka, enabling them to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in a diverse range of subjects at IITs within India. Scholarships are also available for research work and non-formal courses, for example, training courses in classical music and dance, according to the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka. Earlier, IIT Madras became the first IIT in the country to launch an international campus, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, which opened in November last year.
Nearly 270 slots are offered each year to Sri Lankan students for higher studies in India. The government of India has reserved up to 40 seats for Sri Lankan students, of which four to five are for medicine, at some of the most reputed public institutions. – University World
