Plans afoot to set up IIT campus in Abu Dhabi

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has identified the Department of Education and Knowledge Abu Dhabi (ADEK) as its partner for setting up the IIT’S prestigious new campus in the UAE’S capital city, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

A high-level team from IIT Delhi has recently concluded a visit to Abu Dhabi and held extensive discussions with ADEK officials and other stakeholders in the UAE.

In the meantime, the Minister of State for Education, Subhas Sarkar, has informed the Lok Sabha, the lower House of India’s Parliament, in writing that plans are going ahead to speedily establish the IIT campus in Abu Dhabi.

“The Department of Education and Knowledge, Abu Dhabi was identified as the relevant UAE authority for this purpose. In the first ADEK-IIT meeting, both sides made presentations about their respective organisations and conveyed their eagerness and enthusiasm to move forward with this project,” Sarkar said.

Detailing the sequence of events and progress of the IIT’S UAE outreach, the Indian Minister informed Parliament: “In the second ADEK-IIT meeting, ADEK invited representatives from the Department of Economic Development and from the Advanced Technology Research Council who made presentations on the economic vision and the research priorities of Abu Dhabi respectively. On a request from ADEK, IIT Delhi made a presentation on the model followed for mentoring new IITS by the older IITS and shared its experiences in mentoring IIT Ropar and IIT Jammu.”

At its 53rd Convocation three weeks ago, IIT Delhi announced: “IIT Delhi has been in discussions with the Department of Education and Knowledge, Abu Dhabi on various aspects of the proposed IIT in Abu Dhabi. A working group comprising faculty members at IIT Delhi and experts at ADEK has been constituted and this group has had several meetings. A team from ADEK visited IIT Delhi and familiarised themselves with various aspects of the functioning of an IIT. A team from IIT Delhi also travelled to Abu Dhabi and visited various universities and research institutions in the Emirate to get a sense of the research and education landscape in the region. The working group is engaged in developing a detailed project report and expects to finalise it in a few months.”

The detailed statement during the convocation, the most important annual platform of every educational institution, is an indication of the importance being given by IIT Delhi to its plans for a campus in the UAE.