The department of Technical Education was established in the year 1957, even though the first Engineering College in the State started functioning in the year 1939. From one institution in the year 1939, the number has grown to 156 when it reached 2013 and the seats from 21 to 52,000 respectively. The landmark events witnessed by the State in the Engineering Education sector are as below.

Milestones in Kerala Engineering Education

Year	Milestone
1939	College of Engineering Trivandrum was established
1958	TKM College of Engineering was established as the First Govt. aided institution
1961	Regional Engineering College Calicut was established as the first Central Govt. supported institution in the State
1989	Model Engineering College was established as the First Engineering College managed by a Government owned agency (IHRDE)
1993	College of Engineering Chenganur and LBS College of Engineering Kasargod was established as the First Self Financing institutions in the State
1994	MES College of Engineering was established at Valanchery as the first Private Self Financing Engineering College

The count of Engineering institutes which offer undergraduate courses in different disciplines are shown in Table 5 for the State of Kerala. It shows a steep growth in the technical institutes in the state. There were a total of only 19 institutes in the state prior to 2000 which grown up to 156 till this time.

Growth of UG level Institutions in Kerala

YEAR_OF_ESTABLISHMENT	NUMBER_OF_INSTITUTES
PRIOR_TO_2000	19
2000	9
2001	16
2002	28
2003	10
2004	7
2008	3
2009	20
2010	15
2011	16
2012	9
2013	4
2014 Grand Total	5 161