IIT Delhi to set up its first overseas campus in Mauritius

MUMBAI: The of Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi is setting up its first overseas campus in Mauritius in collaboration with Mauritius University with support from the Indian as well as the Mauritius government.

The new campus will be set up with an initial investment of over Rs 100 crore. The institute which will offer courses in research and development will be called the International Institute of Technology (IIT).

IIT D may also set up a full-fledged research facility for PhD students which will be extended to masters' and undergraduate programmes.

The Union Minister for Human resource development, Kapil Sibal and Mauritius' minister of tertiary education, science, research and technology- Rajesh Jeetah had met in June 2010 and discussed about a research institute similar to IIT in Mauritius.

Incidentally, the IITs are grappling with the issue of around 30% faculty crunch. It has been reported that IITs all over the country need 2,500 faculty members urgently to catch up with the standard student-to-teacher ratio of 10:1.

This has been attributed to the addition of 54% seats to accommodate more students in the OBC quota in the past few years. IIT-Delhi has 416 faculty members against the required 800 teachers.