Page 10 - NIT-Jalandhar-Compendium

Journey till date

While Punjab was passing through insurgency since late 1970s, the 2nd National Policy on Education introduced in May 1986,
called for ‘Special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalise educational opportunity’. To achieve such social
integration, it promoted the establishment of new educational institutions. Since model of RECs was already successful in several
Indian states as an all-India institution and was functioning as a beacon of peace. The idea of establishing the 17th Regional
Engineering College in Punjab at Jalandhar, with an intake of 260 students was conceived. 50% seats were reserved for the
students of states other than Punjab, which provided a feeling of mini India within a campus of 153 acres. It started as a joint
venture of the Central and State Government for providing academic leadership to the technical institutions in the region. The
journey began in the year 1989 with the admission of 100 students in three branches, i.e Electronics and Communication
Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Textile Technology, affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. The institute picked
very well during the times of turmoil in Punjab and expanded in the very next year by offering five more branches in the fields
of Computer Science and Engineering, Instrumentation and Control Engineering, Mechanical Machine Design and Automation,
Structural and Construction Engineering, Chemical and Bio Engineering. Leather Technology was added in the year 1995.
The institute was rechristened as National Institute of Technology and taken over as a fully funded institute of Centre Government
with deemed university status on October, 17th 2002, under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development. Till then,
the Institute was orientated towards undergraduate education. In the year 2004, the Institute was further declared as an Institute
of National Importance by the MHRD. Taking the responsibility of disseminating high quality education and contributing to the
research and development activities of the country, Master’s and PhD programs in different areas of engineering and technology,
science and humanities were introduced.
Since then, there is no looking back and the institute is marching ahead in high spirits to make a remarkable contribution to the
society.

Vinay Midha
Chairman, Compendium Committee