The IISc campus is located in North Bengaluru in Karnataka state in India. Known popularly as Tata Institute in the city, IISc is located on the way to Yeshwantpur from Majestic. IISc is easily accessible from Kempegowda Bus Station (known as Majestic) by bus or by auto-rickshaws. IISc is about 7 kilometres from the Majestic area. Bus routes 252, 256, 258, 273 and 276 serve this Institute from Majestic.
Degrees offered by the institute may be broadly classified into two categories: Degrees by Research (Ph. D, integrated Ph. D and M.Sc. (Engg.)), and degrees by coursework (M. E. / M. Tech. / M. B. A. / M. Des.).
Research programmes leading to M. Sc.(Engg.) / Ph.D. degrees are the main thrust in many departments. The programme has a limited amount of course work, essentially to prepare the student to carry out the research, but the main emphasis is on the thesis work. Research students constitute the largest group on the campus and the Institute awards about 200 Ph. D and M. Sc.(Engg) degrees each year, which is probably the largest for any institution in India. The annual intake of research students is approximately 250 with several candidates sponsored from educational institutions and industries.
The Integrated Ph.D. programme is designed to offer exciting opportunities to motivated and talented B. Sc. graduates with a keen sense of scientific enquiry for pursuing advanced research in frontier areas of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences leading to the Ph. D degree of the Institute.
Two year programmes leading to M. E. or M. Tech. by course work are available in almost all engineering departments. A unique feature of the M. E. / M. Tech. programmes at the institute is the credit system which allows students to tailor the courses to suit their aptitude and interest. Most M. E. / M. Tech. programmes have a set of hard core courses specified as an essential requirement whereas students can take rest of the credits from many courses available in their parent or other departments and also do a dissertation work on the topic of their choice. These courses attract highly motivated accomplished students, in addition to several sponsored candidates from R & D labs/industries and also from educational institutions under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP).
The Department of Management Studies, one of the oldest management schools in the country (established in 1948), offers an MBA programme exclusively for engineering graduates. The Center for Product Design and Manufacturing offers the Master of Design course. Started in 1996, the M. Des. programme is a two-year full-time graduate programme.