A dewan's brainchild, college has had a glorious journey

BENGALURU: University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering was established by a visionary who wanted to give engineers to the world then Dewan of Mysore, Sir M Visvesvaraya. The technical institute may boast of many illustrious alumni, but it is Sir MV's name which gives it the most significance. Though the government-run institution is battling growing competition from private engineering colleges, the hope of receiving the Centre for Excellence title is not lost.It's journey began in 1917, when it was set up as College of Engineering, Bangalore, by M Visvesvaraya with the backing of Mysore maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar. The idea was to come up with an alternative in Karnataka as engineering colleges in Madras and Poona (Pune) were not able to provide enough seats for students from Mysore. While delivering a speech at the college, Visvesvaraya had said, “We wanted admission for 10 students annually but the authorities at Madras and Poona could enrol (just) two or three. Thereupon, we decided to start a college of our own in Bangalore city.“
A retired chief engineer, KR Seshachar was appointed the first principal; he has had 24 successors. Under the University of Mysore for many years, in 1964 the college was handed over to the fledgling Bangalore University. While most expected the institution to move to Visvesvaraya Technological University, which was set up in 1998, UVCE was among the two colleges which were spared the transition. Today, it is located at KR Circle, 13km from BU's Jnanabharathi campus.
From mechanical and civil engineering courses, it has expanded to over 30 programmes for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It's journey, though full of roadblocks, has been eventful. “Being a government-run college in 2017 is disadvantageous for an institution like UVCE. But I didn't think twice before joining because of the name attached to it ­ Sir M Visvesvaraya“ said Vyshakh K, a civil engineering student.