History

The history of ITS dates back to 1954 when The Indonesian Engineers’ Association held a national conference in Bogor. It was then that the idea of founding an Institute of Technology in Surabaya was instigated. Such an idea culminated during the Association’s first five-year aniversary in Surabaya in 1957. On 17th August 1957, the Surabaya-Branch Association established a Foundation of Technical College, which was chaired by dr. Angka Nitisastro.

On 10th November 1957 the Foundation launched the Sepuluh Nopember Technical College of Surabaya, which was officially inaugurated by the late President Soekarno, the first President of Indonesia.  The college then had two departments: Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. This private technical college was later awarded the status of state institute of technology under the Government Regulation No. 9/1961 dated 23rd March 1961, which marked the birth of the Institute on 10th November 1960.

In 1977 ITS received a loan of US $ 25 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the development of its four faculties:  Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering , and Faculty of  Chemical Engineering. It was under this loan that the development of ITS’s campus in Sukolilo was funded. The first phase of this development was completed in 1982. ITS received another ADB loan of US $ 47 million in 1994 for the development of all of the faculties within the Institute, focusing on marine technology. This program was completed in 2000. In addition to these loans, a grant from the German Government/GTZ was also received (1978-1986) for the development of the Faculty of Naval Architecture. In the meantime, ITS has developed to be a big and important institute of technology with 5 faculties and two polytechnics as previously mentioned.

ITS is currently taking serious steps to become an internationally accredited university.  Its teaching and research activities are now focused on preparing to be in the 100 Asian’s best universities or in the 500 World’s best universities. The Institute has been adopting a new paradigm by means of implementing sequential accelerations to be an economic development university (EDU), whilst at the same time, strengthening its foundation for a reputable teaching and research university.

The involvement of ITS in various social and community projects have proven its concerns and commitment to the community development. The Institute has contributed for many different community works. The creation of  1000 makeshift houses for the Tsunami tidal wave casualties in Aceh in 2005 and the prototypes of small boats dedicated to fishermen in this province and the neighboring areas are among the evidence.