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Best Place To BuildProf. Preeti Aghalayam|"Sometimes it feels like living in a National Geographic documentary."| Ep.19
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At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Building IIT Madras Zanzibar: fast launch, global campus, community-first vision
- Prof. Preeti Aghalayam, Founding Director of IIT Madras Zanzibar and the first woman director of any IIT campus, describes what it took to establish IITM’s first offshore physical campus in record time—from a Feb 2023 visit to the first day of classes on 24 Oct 2023. She outlines the core building blocks: intergovernmental alignment, program/curriculum design, student selection, faculty staffing, and creating facilities and operations from scratch.
- The Zanzibar campus began with BS and MTech programs in Data Science & AI, added an MTech in Ocean Structures, and is planning a BS in Chemical/Process Engineering. Positioned as an international campus, it already has a diverse cohort and aims to become a “melting pot” for students and faculty across Africa and beyond.
- A major theme is culture: a small, high-access, community-driven “IITM Zanzibar family” combining IITM rigor with an island vibe, while intentionally fostering innovation through hackathons and a student showcase event that drew real-world interest and potential funding.
- The conversation also covers admissions (screening test + interviews), governance (IITM senate-driven academics with a local governing council), the long-term vision (research park/entrepreneurship + skilling), and broader reflections on chemical engineering, teaching innovation, AI tools in research, and gender representation in academia.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasOffshore IIT expansion starts with geopolitics, not just academics.
Aghalayam emphasizes that a strong bilateral relationship and explicit government backing are prerequisites; IIT autonomy alone isn’t sufficient for cross-border campuses.
IITM Zanzibar was built on an unusually fast execution cycle.
From Feb 2023 groundwork to a July 2023 tripartite MoU to classes beginning 24 Oct 2023, the campus compressed decisions on curriculum, staffing, facilities, and hostels into months.
Academic legitimacy is protected by keeping Zanzibar academics under IITM systems.
Curricula and admissions are IIT Madras senate-approved, enabling IITM degrees; local authorities do not control academic decisions even though the campus follows Zanzibar’s laws as a cross-border institution.
“International” is operationalized as mixed nationalities from day one.
With ~50% “international” by different definitions (non-Indian or non-local) and early representation from multiple African countries plus India/Middle East, the campus is designed as a global intake model rather than a later-stage add-on.
Small scale is being used as a strategic advantage for culture.
With ~105 students, the campus intentionally builds DNA-level community—shared meals, joint outings, and high faculty access—aiming to preserve closeness that larger campuses often lose.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes“Making a physical campus abroad is a very big step.”
— Prof. Preeti Aghalayam
“24th October 2023, first day of classes.”
— Prof. Preeti Aghalayam
“So we call ourselves the IITM Zanzibar family. The sense of community is really very important for us.”
— Prof. Preeti Aghalayam
“Sometimes it feels like living in a National Geographic documentary.”
— Prof. Preeti Aghalayam
“Out of the 3,000 PhD scholars you have on campus, you have 1,000 of them being women.”
— Prof. Preeti Aghalayam
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
