Quick Take
- Preeti Aghalayam, Professor of chemical engineering at IIT Madras, ran India’s first IIT campus abroad, at Zanzibar.
- Enrolment rose from 45 students at the opening to 105 by July 2025, and above 129 by April 2026.
- She is now Dean, Global Engagement, at IIT Madras. Prabhu Rajagopal runs the Zanzibar campus.
Professor Preeti Aghalayam ran India’s first IIT campus outside the country, at Zanzibar, from its opening on November 6, 2023.
The Press Information Bureau recorded 45 students in that first batch, 40% of them women. IIT Madras said on April 13, 2026 that more than 129 students are now enrolled.
Peoples Feed has read both documents. One number moved the other way. Women were 30% of the campus by July 2025, IIT Madras Director V. Kamakoti said at the first degree ceremony.
At IIT Madras, Preeti Aghalayam is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Her doctorate, taken in 2000, is from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
What Preeti Aghalayam changed at IIT Madras Zanzibar
The change Preeti Aghalayam delivered was a working campus, built from a signed agreement, that now awards degrees. That agreement was signed on July 6, 2023. Classes began in October 2023, ThePrint later reported.
Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi inaugurated the campus on November 6, 2023. The site sits about 15 km south of Zanzibar Town, at Bweleo. That first batch drew students from Zanzibar, mainland Tanzania, India and Nepal.
Speaking at the inauguration, Preeti Aghalayam said the campus had “started on such a wonderful and positive note with a lovely campus and amazing students”.
The first degrees followed on July 11, 2025. Sixteen students finished the two-year M.Tech in data science and artificial intelligence. Nine of them collected their degrees in person on the campus.
Zanzibar’s Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Lela Mohamed Mussa, called that day “historic for Zanzibar and Tanzania”. The graduates came from six countries, among them Kenya, Zambia and Nepal.
Four degree programmes run there now. Two are undergraduate: data science and AI, and chemical process engineering. Two are M.Tech programmes: data science and AI, and ocean structures.
The campus website lists their credit loads. The undergraduate programmes carry 433 and 431 credits. The M.Tech programmes carry 190 and 208.
How the campus was built, and who pays for it
Zanzibar’s government pays for the campus and IIT Madras runs the teaching. The Press Information Bureau set out that split on July 6, 2023. Capital and running costs sit with the Government of Zanzibar.
Three parties signed that day. They were India’s Ministry of Education, IIT Madras, and Zanzibar’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.
Binaya Srikanta Pradhan, then High Commissioner of India to Tanzania, signed for the Indian ministry. Raghunathan Rengaswamy signed for IIT Madras as Dean, Global Engagement. Khalid Masoud Wazir signed for Zanzibar as Acting Principal Secretary.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called it “a historic beginning towards internationalization of higher education” in the ministry’s release that day.
So India did not pay for the buildings. What India supplied was the teaching, the curriculum and the name on the gate.
The academic record behind the appointment
By training and by teaching post, Preeti Aghalayam is a chemical engineer with three degrees on record. Her first degree came from IIT Madras in 1991. A master’s degree from the University of Rochester followed in 1995.
The doctorate came from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000. All three degrees are listed on her IIT Madras Zanzibar faculty page.
Her IIT Madras department page lists four research fields. They are underground coal gasification, reduction of automotive NOx, reduction of large reaction mechanisms, and reactor modelling.
Four awards appear on her faculty page. Two are from the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers: the Amar Dye Chem Award and the Young Achiever Award. A third is the INAE Young Engineer award.
The fourth is a place in “She Is: 75 Women in STEAM”. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser published that list in 2022.
The graduate school of the University of Massachusetts Amherst noted the Zanzibar appointment on September 18, 2023. It said Preeti Aghalayam would be the first woman to lead an IIT campus.
The record, verified
Every date below comes from a government release or from an IIT Madras page. Anything that could not be traced to a document has been left out.
| Date | What happened | Source document |
|---|---|---|
| July 6, 2023 | Agreement signed for the first IIT campus outside India | PIB release, Ministry of Education |
| August 1, 2023 | Applications opened for the first batch, closing August 5 | PIB release |
| September 18, 2023 | Named first woman to lead an IIT campus | University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate school |
| October 2023 | Classes began for the first batch | ThePrint, May 15, 2025 |
| November 6, 2023 | Campus inaugurated. 45 students, 40% of them women | PIB release |
| July 11, 2025 | First degree ceremony. 16 M.Tech graduates, campus at 105 students, 30% women | IIT Madras release |
| April 13, 2026 | Enrolment above 129, about 51% from Tanzania, fourth batch opened | IIT Madras release |
| 2026 | Listed as Dean, Global Engagement, IIT Madras | IIT Madras central administration page |
What is contested or unproven
The nationality mix is the least settled number in this record. ThePrint reported on May 15, 2025 that about 100 students were enrolled. It quoted Preeti Aghalayam saying about half of them were from India.
IIT Madras gave a different picture on April 13, 2026. Its release put enrolment above 129 and said about 51% of students were from Tanzania. Neither account published a full nationality table, so the two counts cannot be reconciled here.
The 100% placement figure is the institute’s own count. IIT Madras said the M.Tech batch that graduated in 2025 reached full industrial placement. No independent audit of that number has been published.
The women’s share fell as the campus grew. It was 40% of 45 students in November 2023 and 30% of 105 students in July 2025. Both figures come from IIT Madras.
Peoples Feed searched the Press Information Bureau, IIT Madras releases, the campus website and ThePrint on September 10, 2026. That search found no published inquiry, complaint or disputed claim against Preeti Aghalayam over this work.
What happens next
The Zanzibar campus has a new head. Prabhu Rajagopal is now its Director-in-Charge, the campus website says. Preeti Aghalayam holds the post of Dean, Global Engagement, at IIT Madras.
Raghunathan Rengaswamy held that same post in 2023, when he signed the Zanzibar agreement. The office handles IIT Madras partnerships outside India.
IIT Madras first described Preeti Aghalayam as former Director-in-Charge on April 13, 2026. The institute has not published the date she handed the campus over.
A fourth intake was advertised on April 13, 2026. IIT Madras set the M.Tech screening test for April 26, 2026 and the BS screening test for June 6, 2026.
The campus website records a second degree ceremony in 2026. Nineteen students graduated from the two M.Tech programmes. About half came from East Africa and 30% were women.
Doctoral scholars were due to join, IIT Madras said in its April 2026 release. Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya are among the countries now represented on the campus.
What this means for you: If you are an Indian student weighing an IIT degree abroad, IIT Madras Zanzibar has awarded 35 M.Tech degrees so far. Ask the campus for its current nationality and fee tables before you apply, because the published student mix changed between May 2025 and April 2026.
Peoples Feed Insight
Read the Zanzibar numbers as a test of who an offshore IIT is for. In May 2025 about half the students were Indian. In April 2026 the institute said about 51% were Tanzanian. Those two statements sit a year apart and neither came with a nationality table. Watch the fifth intake, which should be advertised around April 2027, and watch whether IIT Madras publishes a country breakdown with it. If it does not, the honest reading is that the campus is still finding its market rather than serving a settled one.
By Dr. Mayank Raj, Editor
About Preeti Aghalayam
Preeti Aghalayam is Dean, Global Engagement, at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and a Professor in its Department of Chemical Engineering. She was the first Director-in-Charge of IIT Madras Zanzibar, India’s first IIT campus outside the country, which opened on November 6, 2023 with 45 students. She holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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