The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) is located in Roorkee, a township in Uttarakhand, India. Instituted as Thomason college of Civil Engineering in year 1847 by British, it was rechristened as University of Roorkee in year 1949. Prior to independence, it awarded the degrees of the University of Calcutta and the Allahabad University, to which it was successively affiliated, followed by its own diplomas. It was restructured in 1948 as the University of Roorkee, as the first engineering university of modern India.

History of Institute
The College was established in year 1847 as the first engineering college in the British Empire.  The College was renamed as The Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854. It was given the status of University by Act No. IX of 1948 of the United Province (Uttar Pradesh) in recognition of its performance, potential and keeping in view the needs of post-independent India. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, presented the Charter in November 1949, elevating the erstwhile college to the First Engineering University of Independent India.

Since its establishment, the University has played a vital role in providing the technical manpower, know-how and pursuit of research to the country. It ranks among the top technological institutions in the world and has contributed to all sectors of technological development. Before becoming an IIT, University of Roorkee was ranked 14th best in Asia by Asiaweek in 2000 (Behind only the IITs among Indian Universities and Institutes).

Academics of IIT Roorkee

• Degrees offered: The Institute offers Bachelor degree courses in 10 disciplines of Engineering and Architecture and Postgraduate degrees in 55 disciplines of Engineering, Applied Sciences, Architecture and Planning. The Institute has facility for doctoral work in all Departments and Research Centres. There are roughly 4200 students in the Institute across all programs. Around 375 faculty belonging to various science and engineering disciplines are engaged in teaching, research and consultancy activities here. With effect from 2003, integrated dual degrees are also offered, which means that students get both B. Tech and M. Tech degrees in 5 years rather than the customary 4+2 years.

• IIT-JEE: The entrance examination for undergraduate courses conducted jointly by the seven IITs and two other institutes namely IT-BHU, Varanasi (Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University) and ISM, Dhanbad (Indian School of Mining). It is amongst the toughest entrance examinations in the world. About 4,000 students are chosen from about 250,000 candidates.

• Credit system: As in other IITs, IIT Roorkee follows a credit system for evaluating academic performance. The Grade Point Average (GPA) is on a scale of 0 to 10. Different courses are alloted different number of credits according to their importance.
   

Academics Collaboration

The Institute has Academic Collaboration with the following universities:

• University of Texas at Dallas
• National University of Singapore
• University of Waterloo
• Royal Institute of Technology(KTH),Stockholm

Campus

With its serene and lush green campus, IIT Roorkee offers a good environment for learning and research. The campus is spread in an area of 360 acres (1.5 km2).[7] Various departments and hostels have very impressive architectures and there is hardly any repetition of design in the entire campus. The institute offers a variety of recreational activities for professional development.

IIT Roorkee also has a Saharanpur Campus of 25 acres (100,000 m2) which offers courses in Polymer Science, Process Engineering and Paper Technology.[8]


Hostels (Bhawans)

Most students at IIT Roorkee live in the hostels, where a large number of extracurricular activities complement the hectic academic routine. The campus has nine hostels, of which two (Sarojini and Kasturba) are exclusively occupied by girls. Hostels in IIT Roorkee may accommodate undergraduate and graduate students along with doctoral students. Students are assigned to hostels by the Institute Administration after their freshmen year. The hostels are named after eminent personalities of India and Britain during the Indian Freedom Struggle. The hostels are:

Azad Bhawan
Cautley Bhawan
Ganga Bhawan
Govind Bhawan
Jawahar Bhawan
Malviya Bhawan (Saharanpur Campus)
Rajendra Bhawan
Ravindra Bhawan
Sarojini Bhawan
Kasturba Bhawan
In addition to these hostels, there are four hostels for married students, doctoral students and foreign students:

Mulk Raj Chopra Bhawan
Ghanand Pandey Bhawan
A. N. Khosla Bhawan
Azad Wing
Several new hostels are being constructed to accommodate an increasing intake of students.