Milestones over the years
BRIEF history of the Technical College Kuala Lumpur:
> The Technical College Kuala Lumpur began as the Treacher Technical School in 1904, named after Sir William Treacher, the resident-general at the time.
> The school was meant to produce technical assistants for the states of Peninsular Malaya, Singapore, the territories of Sarawak and North Borneo, and Brunei, in departments like railway, survey and public works.
> In 1941, it was proposed that the school be elevated to college status and a new campus was built on Gurney Road, now known as Jalan Semarak.
> After World War II, the new Technical College began conducting engineering courses at the diploma level in various engineering disciplines like civil, mechanical, electrical and radio as well as land surveying, building architecture and quantity surveying.
> From 1960, the college began upgrading its engineering courses to the degree level, offering opportunities to sit for professional examinations conducted by Britain’s Institution of Civil Engineers and Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Royal Institute of British Architects, as well as the British Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
> Throughout the 1960s, the college became a popular institution for those aspiring to be engineers, a direct result of the shift in the newly independent Malayan government’s policy to focus on technology-oriented industries to develop the growing economy.
> In 1971, the government upgraded the college to university status, giving rise to the first technical university in Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.