Founded in 1964 as the Regional Engineering College, the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, was one of the longest-established of the 31 regional institutions upgraded with the creation of the National Institute of Technology system from 2002. Affiliated successively to Madras, Bharathidasan and Anna universities, it attained university status in 2003 and the right to award its own degrees in 2007. Operating with the motto "Truth Alone Triumphs" and with the declared mission of providing "valuable resources for industry and society through excellence in technology and research", the university was ranked 24th in the 2019 National Institutional Ranking Framework and was named University of the Year for 2017 by The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. With its strengths reflected in the offer of doctoral programmes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by funding from Indian government agencies. It is a lead institution under the government’s Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP). Its international partners include the universities of Loughborough and Leicester. Distinctive features of its 800-acre campus in Tamil Nadu’s fourth largest city – also often abbreviated to Trichy and known for features including one of the largest operating Hindu temples in the world - include the administration building’s clock tower and, next to the architecture building, a decommissioned MIG23 military aircraft. Every September the university stages the Festember cultural festival started in 1975, which attracts students from more than 500 colleges across India. The 44th edition, in September 2018, was a four-day event with the theme of Arabian Odyssey.