The main campus of the University of Engineering and Technology is located in
the northern part of Lahore on the historical ‘Grand Trunk’ road,
near the magnificent ShalimarGardens built during the great Mughal empire.
The institution started its career in 1921 as the ‘MughalpuraTechnicalCollege’.
Later it became the ‘Maclagan Engineering College’, a name given to
it in 1923 when Sir Edwards Maclagan, the then Governor of the Punjab who laid
the foundation stone of the main building, now called the Main Block, which still
retains its majesty despite the wear and tear of over eight decades. At that stage
the institution offered courses of study in only two disciplines; Electrical Engineering
and Mechanical Engineering.
In the year 1932, the institution was affiliated with the University of the
Punjab for award of a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering. In 1947, at the time
of independence, the institution was offering well-established B.Sc. degree
courses in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering.
In 1954 it started a Bachelor's Degree course in Mining Engineering, the first-ever
of its kind in the country. However, the real expansion and development of the
institution commenced in 1961 on its transformation into the ‘West Pakistan
University of Engineering & Technology’, and within a few years Bachelor's
Degree courses were started in Chemical Engineering, Petroleum & Gas Engineering,
Metallurgical Engineering, Architecture, and City & Regional Planning.
Later, the University started to develop its postgraduate programs, and by
1970's it was offering Master's Degree Courses in various specializations of
engineering, architecture, planning and allied disciplines. Later, Ph.D. Degree
Program was also instituted in a number of disciplines.
With phenomenal increase in students enrollment in seventies, the University
established an Engineering College at Taxila in 1975, which later became an
independent University in 1978 as the University of Engineering and Technology,
Taxila.
Keeping in view the upcomming power crises situation in the country, in 2004
the University established its own Power Generation Unit with capacity of 2
Mega Watts and became first and only countrywide educational institution who
has its own Power Generation Unit
At the present time, the University is developing three more campuses; the
Faisalabad Campus, the Kala-Shah-Kaku Campus, and the RachnaCollege.