Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee or IITR), formerly University of Roorkee and Thomason College of Civil Engineering, is a public technical and research university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.
Established in 1847 in British India by the then lieutenant governor, Sir James Thomason, it is the second oldest technical institution in Asia.
It was given university status in 1949 and was converted into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2001, thus becoming the seventh IIT to be declared.
IIT Roorkee has 22 academic departments covering Engineering, Applied Sciences, Humanities & Social Sciences and Management programs with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.
IIT Roorkee has a strong entrepreneurial culture, with many alumni who have moved on to found technological and social ventures in India and abroad, and have played an important role in the development of India.
Ten alumni have won the Padma awards and twenty-five alumni have won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology.
The institute has produced seven chairmen of the Indian Railway Board, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, more than a hundred secretary-level officers in the Government of India, two presidents of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Governors of states of India, chairmen of University Grants Commission (India), six directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology, Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of prominent Indian Universities, and presidents of Engineering and Scientific organizations like the Indian Institution of Engineers, the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering.
Key Description of IIT Roorkee:
Former Names:
- College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee (1847–1854)
- Thomason College of Civil Engineering(1854–1947)
- University of Roorkee (1947–2001)
Motto: श्रमं विना न किमपि साध्यम् (Sanskrit)
Motto in English: Nothing can be achieved without hard work
Type: Public Technical university
Established: 1847; 173 years ago
Affiliation: UGC
Director: Ajit K Chaturvedi
Academic Staff: 514
Students: 8,020
Undergraduates: 3,598
Postgraduates: 2,130
Doctoral Students: 2,292
Location: Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
Campus Urban, 365 acres (1.48 km2)
Language: English, Hindi
Website: www.iitr.ac.in
Social Network: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube
IIT Roorkee Courses Eligibility & Detailed Fees
| COURSE | ELIGIBILITY | TOTAL FEES/ YEAR |
| B.Tech | 10+2 with 75% + JEE Advanced | ₹2.13 Lakhs |
| MBA | Graduation with 50% + CAT | ₹4.17 Lakhs |
| M.Tech | Pass in Graduation + GATE | ₹2.17 Lakhs |
| B.Tech + M.Tech | 10+2 with 75% + JEE Advanced | ₹1.74 Lakhs |
| M.Sc | Graduation with 55% + IIT JAM | ₹22,500 |
| Ph.D | Post Graduation | ₹21,167 |
| B.Sc + M.Sc | 10+2 | ₹1.73 Lakhs |
Admission in IIT Roorkee
| Course Name | Exam Name |
| B.Tech | JEE Advanced |
| Integrated M.Tech/ M.Sc | |
| B.Arch | NATA |
| MBA | CAT |
| M.Tech | GATE |
| Ph.D. | Written Test/ GATE/ JRF/ GPAT |
History of IIT Roorkee
The institution has its origins in a class started in 1845 to train local youth in engineering to assist in public works then beginning. In 1847 it was officially established.
It was renamed as the Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854 in honour of its founder, James Thomason, lieutenant governor 1843–53. The first Indian to graduate from the Roorkee college was Rai Bahadur Kanhaiya Lal in 1852.
The Department of Civil Engineering was established in 1847 and is the oldest engineering department in India. The Electrical Engineering department of the Thomson College was established in the year 1897, and was one of the earliest such specializations in the world.
The architecture department is the first in India in instituting a master's degree course in Architecture (M. Arch.) in the year 1969–70.
In 1978, the Institute of Paper Technology, Saharanpur was merged with the then University of Roorkee. The Institute of Paper Technology was established as School of Paper Technology by the Government of India in 1964, with an aid from the Royal Swedish Government. The school was renamed as the Institute of Paper Technology in July 1968 and subsequently Department of Paper Technology in July 1992.
The first edition of Thomso, the institute's annual cultural festival was held in 1982.
On 21 September 2001, an ordinance issued by the Government of India declared it as the nation's seventh Indian Institute of Technology, renaming it to the current name, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The ordinance was converted into an act by the Parliament to make IIT Roorkee an "Institution of National Importance".
Administration
All IITs follow the same organization structure which has President of India as visitor at the top of the hierarchy. Directly under the president is the IIT Council. Under the IIT Council is the board of governors of each IIT.
Under the board of governors is the director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. Under the director, in the organizational structure, comes the deputy director. Under the director and the deputy director, come the deans, heads of departments, registrar.
Academics of IIT Roorkee
IIT Roorkee offers academic programmes in Engineering, Technology, Applied Sciences, and Management. It runs eleven undergraduate (UG), one integrated dual degree, sixty one postgraduate (PG) and several doctoral programmes.
The institute admits students to B.Tech., B.Arch. and integrated M.Sc. integrated M.Tech courses through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted at centers all over India.
Before being converted into an IIT, the university selected students through the Roorkee Entrance Exam (REE) conducted on an All-India level.
The selectivity of REE was close to 0.25%. After IIT-JEE, it was considered to be the second toughest engineering entrance examination in India. Admission to PG programmes in engineering and architecture is on the basis of GATE score and/or a written test and interview. For PG programmes in fundamental sciences admission is based on the Joint Admission Test (JAM).
Along with the engineering courses, the institute offers a two-year residential MBA program for which the admissions, starting from 2011, will be done on the basis of Common Admission Test, thus replacing Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) previously conducted by the IITs.
The institute also offered an interdisciplinary program in computer applications leading to a degree in Master of computer applications (MCA). The MCA program was a three-year course and admission for the course was through JAM. This programme has been discontinued.
According to statistics published by institute in 2007–08 4137 students were enrolled in the institute across all programs. The student-to-academic-staff ratio was 2.6:1 and that of UG/PG students was 1.4:1.
Ranking of IIT Roorkee
Internationally, IIT Roorkee was ranked 383 in the QS World University Rankings of 2020. The same rankings ranked it 86 in Asia[20] and 47 among BRICS nations.
It was ranked 501-600 in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2020, and 35 in Emerging Economies University Rankings in 2019.
In India, it ranked sixth among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2020 and ninth overall. It also ranked 5th among engineering colleges in India in 2019 by The Week.
The Department of Management Studies ranked eleventh among management schools in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2019.
However, it stands first if only Research and Professional Practice (RPC) factor is taken into consideration.
Departments and Centres:
IIT Roorkee is one of the biggest technical institutions in the country having the largest number of academic units. It has 21 academic departments covering engineering, applied sciences, humanities & social sciences, and management programmes, 1 academic centre, 3 centres of excellence, 5 academic service centres and 3 supporting units.
Departments of IIT Roorkee
Engineering and Applied Sciences
- Architecture and Planning
- Applied Science and Engineering
- Biotechnology
- Chemical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science and Engineering
- Earthquake Engineering
- Earth Sciences
- Electrical Engineering
- Electronics and Communication Engineering
- Humanities and Social Sciences
- Hydrology
- Hydro and Renewable Energy
- Management Studies
- Mathematics
- Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
- Paper Technology
- Polymer and Process Engineering
- Physics
- Water Resources Development and Management
Sciences
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
Business
- Management Studies
Humanities
- Humanities and Social Sciences
Centers
Centre of Excellence
- Centre of Nanotechnology
- Centre for Transportation Systems (CTRANS)
- Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation & Management (CoEDMM)
Academic Service centers
- Mahatma Gandhi Central Library
- Centre of Nanotechnology
- Centre for Transportation Systems
- Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation & Management
- Continuing Education Centre
- Institute Computer Centre
- Institute Instrumentation Centre
- Intellectual Property Rights Cell
- Quality Improvement Programme
Supporting Service Centres
- Educational Technology Cell
- Institute Hospital
Research
Research activities at the institute are conducted at either the department level or under the central office of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC).
Major research funding was awarded by several ministries and departments of the Government of India, including the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and others.
Apart from these, a number of major research organizations who have awarded projects to IIT Roorkee include the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Space Research Organisation and others.
The State Emergency Operation Centre(SEOC) in Dehradun is planning to soon link data centre of an earthquake early warning system developed by IIT Roorkee with the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun which would come as a great recognition for the establishment.
Academic Collaboration of IIT Roorkee
IIT Roorkee's contribution towards the international community in science and technology include the courses and training programs run for developing countries. Every year students from more than 50 countries join IIT Roorkee for full-time or short-term training courses. In 1955 the department of Water Resources Development and Management (WRDM) was established as an Asian African Centre to honour India's commitment at the Asian African Conference held in Bandung.
WRDM and the Department of Hydrology run special postgraduate programmes for students of the Afro Asian region. The department has so far trained over 2469 in service engineers and agricultural scientists from 48 countries including India.
The courses offered by the Department of Hydrology are presently sponsored by the Government of India and the UNESCO.
Research organizations in India which have a MOU with IIT Roorkee include Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun; Department of Atomic Engineering (DAE), Mumbai; Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd.; Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital among others.
Campus of IITR
The main campus in Roorkee has an area of 365 acres (1,480,000 m2).
IIT Roorkee has a separate campus of 25 acres (100,000 m2) in Saharanpur which offers courses in Polymer Science, Process Engineering, Paper Technology & Packaging Technology In addition to this, a new ten-acre campus has been established in Greater Noida, Knowledge Park II, which was inaugurated on 4 April 2011.
The Noida extension centre has 16 lecture rooms, software laboratories, faculty offices, a library and a computer center.
Notable Alumni of IITR
IIT Roorkee has produced many alumni who played important roles in the technological development of India and made significant impact on corporate world.
According to IIT Roorkee's website, ten alumni have won Padma awards and 25 have been Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology awardees.
The institute has produced seven chairmen of the Indian Railway Board, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, chief of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, more than a hundred secretary-level officers in the Government of India, two presidents of the Confederation of Indian Industry, six directors of IITs, and presidents of bodies related to engineers and scientists like the Indian Institution of Engineers, the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering.
| Name | Class
Year |
Notability |
| Amit Singhal | 1989 | former senior vice president at Google |
| Digvijai Singh | 1956; 1957 | chemical engineer, former vice chancellor of University of Roorkee, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Lawrence Samuel Durrell | Chief Engineer of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway | |
| Shyam Sundar Rai | 1977 | seismologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |