Bachelor’s In Cybersecurity Programme: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has joined IIT Kanpur to launch India’s first practice-oriented Bachelor of Cybersecurity (BCyber) programme. The four-year undergraduate programme will begin in July 2026 and aims to address the country’s growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals.
Announcing the programme, IIT Madras said the initiative comes at a time when India is rapidly strengthening its digital ecosystem, leading to an increasing need for cybersecurity experts.
“As India continues to strengthen its digital ecosystem, the demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals is growing rapidly. Addressing this need, IIT Madras has joined IIT Kanpur in launching India’s first practice-oriented Bachelor of Cybersecurity (BCyber) programme, beginning in July 2026. Designed to bridge the country’s cybersecurity talent gap, the four-year programme blends academic excellence with immersive, hands-on learning to prepare students for the evolving digital landscape,” the institute said in an official statement.
The institute added, “Together, IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur are shaping the next generation of cybersecurity leaders and strengthening India’s digital future.”
What Is the BCyber Programme?
One of the key highlights of the programme is a two-year Field Deployment Professional Project, which will provide students with extensive hands-on experience through cybersecurity projects mentored by experts from strategic and critical organisations.
The curriculum includes training in Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, Cloud Security, Digital Forensics, Critical Infrastructure Security, and several other specialised areas, equipping graduates with practical skills to tackle emerging cybersecurity challenges.
How To Get Admission — No JEE Required
Sharing details about admissions, IIT Madras Director Professor V Kamakoti said candidates will not be selected through JEE Main or JEE Advanced.
“Admission in the coming years will not be through JEE or JEE Advanced. It will be through an aptitude test followed by a hackathon. Those who clear both will be offered admission,” he said.
Why IITs Introduced The Course
Explaining the rationale behind launching the programme, Professor Kamakoti said India’s increasing digitalisation has significantly expanded the need for cybersecurity professionals.
“India is becoming more and more digitalised. We are becoming more and more connected-be it the transportation sector, agriculture sector, energy sector or financial sector. Every sector has digital assets. We have a lot of Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, and there is now a growing need to protect these assets. With the advent of AI, we also don’t know what the attacks will be, what the attack surface will look like, who will attack and how the attacks will happen,” he said.
Highlighting emerging cybersecurity risks, he added that many advanced tools are not yet available in India, making it difficult to predict future threat vectors.
“There are new tools that are not available in our country, such as Anthropic and Mitos, and we really don’t know what the threat vector is. The solution is to build systems that are resilient to any form of attack,” he said.
Course Structure
Professor Kamakoti said the programme has been designed to build cybersecurity expertise from the ground up.
“This course is intended to address the need for human resource development in cybersecurity. Students will learn the complete communication-computation stack during the first four semesters, including hardware, microarchitecture, operating systems, systems programming, compilers and the application layer-all from a security perspective. The remaining two years will focus on field deployment, where students will solve important real-world cybersecurity problems,” he said.
BCyber Programme: Age Limit
The IIT Madras Director said the upper age limit for admission is currently 25 years. The inaugural batch of the BCyber programme will commence in July 2026.
In a video message, Professor Kamakoti encouraged aspiring students to begin preparing for the admission process.
“Through this video, I want to create awareness among all of you so that you prepare for the aptitude test and the hackathon. You can plan the next year for admission to one of the country’s two premier institutions, IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras, in a very exciting area with tremendous employment potential-cybersecurity,” he said.
He also invited students to join the four-year Bachelor of Cybersecurity programme and expressed hope that many young aspirants would participate in what he described as an important nation-building initiative.
