Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology was established in the year 1987 as Regional Engineering College and was given the status of National Institute of Technology (Deemed University) by the Government of India on October 17, 2002 under the aegis of Ministry of Education (Shiksha Mantralaya), New Delhi. Now the Ministry of Education (Shiksha Mantralaya), Government of India has declared the Institute as “Institute of National Importance” under the act of Parliament-2007. A large number of reputed Industrial houses in the country visit the Institution and select the final year students as Engineers/ Management Trainees. As one of the National Institutes of Technology (NIT), the Institute has the responsibility of providing high quality education in Engineering, Technology and Sciences to produce competent technical and scientific manpower for the country. The Institute offers BTech, MTech, MSc, MBA and PhD programmes in the several disciplines of Engineering, Technology and Sciences.

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 ag Institute of National Importance by the MHRD. Taking the responsibility of disseminating high quality education and contributhig 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.