Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India — www.iitk.ac.in
- QS Ranking
- #278
- Founded
- 1959
- Type
- Public Research University (Institute of National Importance)
- Students
- 9,000+
- Acceptance Rate
- ~1.5% (JEE Advanced)
- Founded
- 1959 (US consortium mentoring — Caltech, MIT, Princeton et al.)
- QS Rank
- #278 (2025)
- Asia's First CS
- First Computer Science department in Asia (1963)
- Arvind Krishna
- IBM CEO since 2020 — IIT Kanpur alumnus
Overview
The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur or IITK), established in 1959 with technical assistance from a consortium of nine top American universities (Caltech, MIT, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Ohio State, Case Western Reserve, California-Berkeley, and Purdue) under the Kanpur Indo-American Programme (KIAP — the first major US–India higher education partnership of the Cold War era), is one of India's most internationally connected IITs and ranked #278 in QS 2025. IIT Kanpur's origin story — uniquely, it was the first developing-world technical institution to be built with systematic mentoring from a consortium of the US's leading engineering universities — gave it a distinctive American-style research culture from inception. IIT Kanpur is particularly known for: computer science (the founding of India's first CS department, 1963 — the first in Asia, predating IIT Bombay and Delhi), aerospace engineering (the National Wind Tunnel Facility and the Department of Aerospace Engineering, producing India's senior aerospace engineers), and the humanities and social sciences department (the first IIT to place significant emphasis on liberal arts education). Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM since 2020, is IIT Kanpur's most famous alumnus.
Admission Process
Indian citizens: JEE Advanced + JoSAA counselling. International students: DASA scheme (iitk.ac.in). GATE for M.Tech. PhD: direct department applications. Dual degree (B.Tech + M.Tech in 5 years) available. IIT Kanpur's liberal arts requirement (all B.Tech students must take HSS courses) distinguishes its curriculum. Deadlines: March–July (DASA).
Programs at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
- MSc Computer Science (Master's) — 5,000 USD/year
- Master of Business Administration (Master's) — 8,000 USD/year
- MSc Data Science & AI (Master's) — 12,000 USD/year
- Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) (Bachelor's) — 18,000 USD/year
- Master of Science in Engineering (Master's) — 5,000 USD/year
- PhD in Natural Sciences (PhD) — 8,000 USD/year
- BSc Computer Science (Bachelor's) — 3,000 USD/year
- BSc Business Administration (Bachelor's) — 5,000 USD/year
- BSc Economics (Bachelor's) — 8,000 USD/year
- BA International Relations (Bachelor's) — 12,000 USD/year
- BSc Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor's) — 18,000 USD/year
- BSc Civil Engineering (Bachelor's) — 3,000 USD/year
- BSc Electrical Engineering (Bachelor's) — 5,000 USD/year
- MBA Sustainability & ESG (MBA) — 649,173 INR/year
- MSc Data Science (Master's) — 540,546 INR/year