Established in 1959, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is commonly known as IIT Kanpur. The college is recognised as the Institute of National Importance by Government of India. The campus of IIT Kanpur is build over an area of 1055 acres. The total faculty strength of the college is 458. As per NIRF Rankings 2021, the institute has been ranked 16th in the management category and 6th in the research category. The institute has secured 5th rank in NIRF 2021 Overall Ranking. IIT Kanpur has ranked fourth in NIRF 2021 ranking in the engineering category with a score of 83.22/100. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is an 'Institute of National Importance'.
IIT Kanpur has collaborations/tie-ups with most of the top international institutes and universities for research and academic initiatives. The Institute currently has 22 departments across 5 different streams. It offers a total of 95 courses at three levels: UG, PG and doctoral. The campus of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has modern and upgraded facilities for students and faculty members.
The college is situated 15 km away from the Kanpur city on the Grand Trunk Road and is spread in an area of 420 hectares of land that was gifted to the Institute in the year 1960 by the Uttar Pradesh Government. The institute relocated itself to the aforesaid land in the year 1963. A Delhi based architect Mr. Achyut Kanvinde developed and planned the campus. The institute distance from the Lucknow Airport is around 80kms and around 18 km away from the Central Railway Station. Taxis are available to the students for hire to reach the campus from both the railway station as well as the airport.
The computer centre of IIT Kanpur has fully-airconditioned and is operational 24x7. The whole centre is backed up by UPS system in case of a power failure. It provides IT as well as computational requirements not only to the academic division but also to the residential units built in the campus. The systems present in the computer centre have upgraded hardware and software.