The Indian Institute of Technology RoorkeeIIT Roorkee) is located in Roorkee, a township in Uttarakhand, India. Instituted as Thomason College of Civil Engineering in year 1847 by the British, it was rechristened as University of Roorkee in year 1949. Prior to independence, it awarded the degrees of the University of Calcutta and the Allahabad, to which it was successively affiliated, followed by its own diplomas. It was restructured in 1948 as the University of Roorkee, as the first engineering university of modern India. IIT Roorkee is placed at 63 in the QS.com Asian University Rankings 2009.