Harcourt Butler Technical University

Harcourt Buttler Technical University, Kanpur

Former names	Harcourt Butler Techlonogical Institute
Motto in English	Work and Great Austerity
Type	Government University
Established	1921
Founder	Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler
Chancellor	Governor of Uttar Pradesh
Vice-Chancellor	Vinay Kumar Pathak
Dean	Yaduveer Singh
Location	Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 208002, India
Campus	Urban
Website	www.hbtu.ac.in

Harcourt Butler Technical University (HBTU) is a government technical university located at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh in India. The HBTU was named after Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler, governor of the United Provinces in British India. All Its programs have been conferred in autonomous status under the university. It is one of the oldest engineering institutes in the country and holds the ISO 9001:2000 certification. It offers Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral programs in engineering, as well as Masters programs in Business Administration, and Computer Applications.

In 1959, when the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) was established, its classes were initially held in the canteen building of HBTU until IITK had its own campus. HBTU is the mother institute of the National Sugar Institute (in 1936, then known as Imperial Institute of Sugar Technology), the Government Central Textile Institute (in 1937), now known as the Uttar Pradesh Textile Technology Institute, and the Glass Institute. It was also one of the 127 technical institutions in India which were the recipients of funding from World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) in the phase one (2004-2009) of the Technical Engineering Educational Quality Improvement Project (TEQIP) - the first World Bank project in Higher education in India.

The history of Harcourt Butler Technical University dates back to the 1920s when there was a growing realization of the need for advancement in science and technology among the people of what was then called the United Provinces. Consequently, the Indian Industrial Commission, 1916–18, at its Nainital meeting proposed two institutions for engineering — one at Roorkee and the other at Kanpur. To boost entrepreneurship, accelerate industrial development, create a sound environment for contemporary applied research, and inculcate scientific temper, an institute called Government Research Institute, Cawnpore was started in 1920. It was housed in the two rooms of what was called Bhoot Wali Kothi. The old majestic building is still intact at the northwest corner of the Company Bagh crossing, near Nawabganj. Dr. H. E. Annett, who was then the Principal of the Opium Research Laboratory, Cawnpore, of which the new institute was an adjunct, was appointed as the head.