The M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT Kannada:ಎಮ್.ಎಸ್.ರಾಮಯ್ಯ ತಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ಮಹಾವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯ) is an autonomous private engineering college located in Bengaluru, Karnataka affiliated to the Visvesvaraya Technological University head quartered at Belgaum, Karnataka. From Aug 2007, MSRIT has been academically autonomous. While VTU will still award the degrees, the college has academic freedom in framing its own schemes of study, curricula and student evaluation. The college is considered to be next only to IISc, NIT-K and on par with RVCE, UVCE, SJCE which are supposedly the top and most sought after colleges in Karnataka. MSRIT is also a research centre(for the award of Ph.D degree) in 12 areas(Engineering and Management disciplines). MSRIT was founded in 1962 by Dr. M.S Ramaiah. It was the first institute started by the Gokula Education Foundation. It now offers courses like B.E. in 12 areas, B.Arch., M.Tech. in eight areas, M.Sc (Engineering) by research, MBA, MCA and Ph.D. Initially, MSRIT was affiliated to Mysore University, later with the Bangalore University (until 2002) and now Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum. It received autonomous stature in 2007.