The University was initially established in 1960 as the Thonburi Technical Institute. Together with Northern Bangkok Technical Institute and the Nonthaburi Telecommunication Institute, it was later upgraded to King Mongkut’s Institute of Techonology (KMIT) in 1971. King Mongkut, or King Rama IV, was a respected educator and did much to promote early engineering in Siam. In 1986 KMIT was divided into three autonomous universities, of which KMIT was one. Full autonomy and university status was reflected in the name changed to KMUTT in 1998.