Originally established in 1949 as a Private Evening Engineering College with the departments of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and nationalised in 1951, Bialystok University of Technology (BUT) finally acquired its university status in 1974. Bialystok University of Technology is a public institution of higher education subordinate to the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education. Located in Bialystok BUT is the largest university of its kind in the north-eastern region of Poland.