According to IIT Madras, the programme has been designed to address the country’s growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals and prepare students to protect India’s expanding digital infrastructure, strategic sectors and cyber ecosystem.

Explaining how admissions will work this year, IIT Madras said it has joined IIT Kanpur’s ongoing selection process. “This year, because IIT Kanpur has already had such a thing started about a month back, and they have gone through the process of selection, we will essentially join them in the selection process. Every student will be given the opportunity, if they are selected, to choose between IIT Madras or IIT Kanpur,” the institute clarified.

The institute said that while the admission process is common this year, students who opt for IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur will study separately at their respective campuses. “It is much like the regular BTech programme. The entrance into the degree would be the same. Once they start the course, it would be an independent degree,” the institute spokesperson noted.

The institute added that each IIT will run its own programme. “IIT Madras will run their own course, IIT Kanpur will run their own thing, and the degrees will be given independently,” the institute said.

The institute also outlined the admission model that will be adopted from next year onwards. IIT Madras said candidates will take an aptitude test covering basic mathematics, logical reasoning and cybersecurity aptitude.

Explaining the stages of selection, IIT Madras said, “We will have a hackathon, which will be a much longer duration. The hackathon will actually test their programming skills, their expertise or what they know in cybersecurity. Based on this hackathon and marks obtained during the hackathon, the shortlisting will be done.”

For the current admission cycle, however, IIT Madras said it will rely on IIT Kanpur’s existing shortlist. Students participating in the upcoming hackathon will be given the option to choose either IIT Madras or IIT Kanpur.

Highlighting the need for such a programme, IIT Madras said cybersecurity has become a strategic national priority as India rapidly expands digital services across governance, finance, healthcare, transportation, telecommunications, manufacturing and defence. The institute added that industry estimates indicate a shortage of nearly 1.5 million cybersecurity professionals in the country, underscoring the urgent need for dedicated undergraduate education in the field.

The programme places significant emphasis on practical learning. A major component is a two-year Field Deployment Professional Project, during which students will spend the final four semesters working on live cybersecurity assignments under the guidance of professionals from strategic and critical organisations.

According to IIT Madras, the competency-based curriculum covers areas such as security operations, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, secure systems, malware analysis, firmware reverse engineering, hardware security, cloud security and critical infrastructure security. The academic session is expected to begin by the end of July, in line with other undergraduate engineering programmes offered by the institute.