3 Feb 2022

The centre has formed a 16-member committee comprising directors of seven IITs and vice-chancellors of four central universities to prepare a roadmap on the demand 'from various quarters' to allow overseas campuses' of Indian universities. The development comes on the back of IIT Delhi's proposal to open centres in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The committee, headed by IIT Council Standing Committee Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan, has been asked to 'submit a framework/structure for the opening of campuses abroad by Higher Education Institutes after examining the existing provisions for the opening of offshore campuses' by March 17. The committee members include directors of seven IITs — Mumbai, Delhi, Kharagpur, Madras, Kanpur, Guwahati, Dhanbad — and the vice-chancellors of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University, University of Hyderabad, and the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Its mandate includes drawing up the administrative, financial, and legal framework of the proposed overseas campuses.