Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) is a collegiate public state university in Karnataka State, India. It was established on 1 April 1998 by the Government of Karnataka as per VTU Act 1994, to improve the quality of technical education in the state. Apart from a few notable exceptions, VTU has complete authority in the state of Karnataka. It is a statutory requirement for colleges offering
any program in engineering or technology in the state to be affiliated with the university. The university is named after Sir Visvesvaraya from Karnataka, the only engineer to be awarded a Bharat Ratna award, the highest civilian award in India. Jnana Sangama, Belgaum is the headquarters of VTU. Additionally, the university has three regional centers located in Bangalore, Gulbarga and Mysore. VTU is one of the largest universities in India with 208 colleges affiliated to it with an intake capacity of over 67100 undergraduate students and 12666 postgraduate students. The university encompasses various technical & management fields which offers a total of 30 undergraduate and 71 postgraduate courses. The university has around 1800 PhD candidates. Presently, VTU has 13 QIP centers and 17 extension centers in its various affiliated colleges offering post graduate courses. It has around 2305 departments recognized as research centers which are spread across its various affiliated institutions in different cities of Karnataka. It is one of the few universities of India to have 16 of its affiliated colleges recognised by the World Bank for getting assistance in setting up state of art laboratories, campus facilities and research centers under the TEQIP (Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme, A Government of India initiative) program. The university is administered by its Executive Council and Academic Senate whose members are selected from the academic community and government officials.The present Chancellor of the university is His Excellency, Sri Hans Raj Bhardwaj, Governor of Karnataka state and the Vice-Chancellor is Dr. H. The Jnana Sangama, Belgaum campus and the regional and extension centers of VTU at Bangalore, Davangere, Gulbarga and Mysore offer M.Tech, MBA, MCA and PhD programs. The University has signed MoUs with various Multinational corporation like IBM, Intel Asia Electronics Inc., Ingersoll-Rand (India) Ltd., Bangalore, Nokia, Bosch Rexroth and Microsoft to improve the industry interactions for both students and the teachers.
