Beyond Engineering: IITs Offer Foreign Language Courses Too
Several IITs run structured foreign language programmes for students, professionals and lifelong learners, covering languages such as French, German, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish alongside their core science and engineering curricula. IIT Kanpur runs one of the oldest such initiatives — its Foreign Language Programme, formalised in the 1970s and coordinated by its Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Some courses are taught on campus through humanities departments or international relations offices, while others are delivered online via NPTEL and SWAYAM, making them available nationwide. The piece covers offerings at IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi, among others.
