IIT (BHU) Varanasi
The Indian Institute of Technology Varanasi '' is a public technical university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is ranked amongst the most prestigious engineering institutions in the country. Founded in 1919 as the Banaras Engineering College, it became the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in 1968. It was later designated an Indian Institute of Technology in 2012. IIT Varanasi has 16 departments, 3 inter-disciplinary schools and a Humanities & Social Sciences Section. It is located inside the Banaras Hindu University Campus. It has overarching legacy with placements and considered amongst the tier elite engineering institutes in India alongside the other top 7 IITs.
History
IIT Varanasi has formerly been known as the Banaras Engineering College, the College of Mining and Metallurgy, the College of Technology and the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. Its establishment is intimately linked with that of the Banaras Hindu University. The first convocation ceremony at BHU was held on 2 December 1920. BHU has the credit of first starting degree classes in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Mining Engineering and Pharmaceutics, thanks to the foresight of its founder, Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya.The Department of Geology was started under BENCO in 1920. The Geology Department introduced courses in Mining and Metallurgy. The Department of Industrial Chemistry was started in July 1921. In 1923, Mining and Metallurgy were established as separate departments and in 1944, they were raised to the status of a college forming the College of Mining and Metallurgy.
In 1968, BENCO, TECHNO and MINMET were merged and the Institute of Technology was established integrating the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil and Municipal Engineering, Mining Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Silicate Technology and Pharmaceutics. The Department of Silicate Technology subsequently became the Department of Ceramic Engineering. A Department of Electronics Engineering was also established. The departments of Applied Physics, Applied Mathematics and Applied Chemistry were established in 1985.
The earlier system of regional admission based on merit lists was replaced in 1972 by admission through Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination for undergraduate courses and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering for postgraduate courses. In the tenth meeting of the IIT Council in 1972, it was also proposed to convert the then IT-BHU into an IIT and a committee was appointed by the IIT Council for the purpose but because of political reasons, the desired conversion could not be achieved then.
In 2003, Committees constituted by MHRD had recommended for the conversion of the Institute into an Indian Institute of Technology. On 17 July 2008, the government of India issued a press release granting "In principle approval for taking over the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University – a constituent unit of the Banaras Hindu University, a Central University, its conversion into an Indian Institute of Technology and integrating it with the IIT system in the country." The BHU Executive Council approved the proposal of the HRD ministry to convert IT-BHU to IIT Varanasi, retaining academic and administrative ties to BHU.
On 4 August 2010 a bill seeking to amend the Institutes of Technology Act 1961 to declare IT-BHU an IIT was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for HRD, D. Purandeswari. The Lok Sabha passed The Institutes of Technology Act, 2011 on 24 March 2011 and the Rajya Sabha on 30 April 2012, thereby formalizing the IIT status of the institute. The Bill was signed by the President of India on 20 June 2012 and notified in the gazette on 21 June.
The Department of Architecture, Planning and Design was set up in the Institute in collaboration with IIT Roorkee, beginning its academic activities in the session 2019–2020. The first cohort of students consisted of 20 students admitted into the five-year programme through the JEE Advanced exam.
The institute celebrated its centenary year in 2019–2020. It organized a global alumni meet and other cultural events during the celebration. The 80-year-old BENCO chimney was also re-erected to commemorate the institute's completion of a century.
Organisation and administration
Governance
All IITs follow the same organisational structure which has the president of India as the 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, the heads of various departments, and the registrar.However, IIT-BHU has special provisions under The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, where the executive council of Banaras Hindu University can nominate the Vice Chairman, as well as two members of the board.
According to Kapil Sibal, the then HRD Minister, the purpose of such a system was to maintain the integrity of the Banaras Hindu University, and to maintain the linkage between the two, and ensuring the cross-disciplinary research.
Departments
Indian Institute of Technology has 11 engineering departments, 3 science departments, 3 schools, and a humanities department:| Engineering Departments | Schools | Science Departments | Humanities Department |
|
|
Academics
Undergraduate programme
IIT Varanasi offers four-year instructional programs for the degree of Bachelor of Technology and five-year programs for Integrated Dual Degree. The IDD program offers both BTech and MTech degrees. Admission to all programs is expressly through the Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology. Earlier half of the intake for Pharmaceutical sciences was through JEE and the other half through BHU-PMT. But after the college was converted into an IIT, intake for BTech and the IDD in Pharmaceutical sciences is exclusively through Joint Entrance Examination - Advanced.Postgraduate programme
Postgraduate courses offer Master of Technology and PhD degrees. Admissions to the MTech program are made through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering conducted jointly by Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institutes of Technology. For admission into the various PhD courses, one can apply through the official institute website. The application brochure is released on the same.Admission
The admission of students to the institute is through JEE Advanced for undergraduate courses and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering or Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test for postgraduate courses. From 2013, admission to undergraduate programs is based on a two-tier test called Mains and Advanced. In addition, the students qualifying through JEE need to be in the top 20 percentile of the respective categories and/or have secured 75% or above in the qualifying exam conducted by the boards of their respective state/UT.Rankings
Internationally, IIT Varanasi was ranked 566th in the world by the QS World University Rankings of 2026 and 8th in India.IIT Varanasi was also ranked 10th among engineering colleges and 31st overall, by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2025.
Library facilities
IIT Varanasi Main Library comprises the Shreenivas Deshpande Library and five departmental libraries. The main library has a collection of books across streams in engineering, science, and technology, along with a host of books in humanities, social sciences, and literary fiction.The library has about 1,42,000 volumes of books, journals, theses, reports, and pamphlets. Basic facilities like circulation, scanning, printing, and photocopying amenities are also available in this Wi-Fi-enabled library. The library has a sitting capacity of more than 600 students. The faculty and students can have access to these facilities by registering themselves.
The library permits access to nearly 10000 e-journals, 25,000 standards and more than 3,500 electronic books and databases. It has an excellent collection of bound volumes of old and new periodicals, codes standards, etc. The library also maintains an online repository containing student thesis and publications, transcripts and event videos, available on the Institute intranet. Apart from this, students also enjoy access to the central and cyber library of Banaras Hindu University.
Student life
Gymkhana
The IIT Gymkhana, housed in Kings' Pavilion, is the primary hub of all extracurricular activities in the institute.The Gymkhana functions through its five councils:
- Games and Sports Council
- Cultural Council
- Science and Technology Council
- Film and Media Council
- Social Service Council