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IIT Bombay’s US expansion faces questions over costs and demand
IIT Bombay plans to conduct specialised certificate programmes at the State University of New York’s Old Westbury campus, extending its engineering and technology education to the United States, The Hindu reports. The…
The Story in Brief
IIT Bombay plans to conduct specialised certificate programmes at the State University of New York’s Old Westbury campus, extending its engineering and technology education to the United States, The Hindu reports. The proposed partnership may also include research laboratories, though funding details are unclear.
The move differs from IIT Madras’s Zanzibar campus and IIT Delhi’s Abu Dhabi campus, where host governments fund capital or operating costs. Zanzibar has 129 students, while Abu Dhabi enrolled fewer than 200 last academic year. The Hindu questions Old Westbury’s suitability, citing its mainly undergraduate student body, lack of an engineering school and limited research facilities. It also asks who will teach, fund and enrol students in the proposed programmes.
The Indian Opinion
The easy narrative is that any overseas IIT presence automatically strengthens India’s soft power. The opposite claim, that the project is simply a prestige exercise, is also premature. The real test is commercial and academic: who pays for the laboratories, how many students enrol, and whether the certificates attract learners beyond India’s existing network. IIT Bombay should publish those details before expanding further. Will demand justify the cost?
Source: thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
