BEGINNING
The history of technical education in this country has been a century old. It all began in 1904 when a Technical School began its operation on Weld Road (now Jalan Raja Chulan) to teach Technical Assistants for the Federated Malay States Departments of Railways, Survey and Public Works.
The school was officially known as Treacher Technical School, named after Sir William Treacher, the Resident General during that time. Students followed classed on part-time basis; they worked and trained specifically according to the technical needs of their employment.
Department In 1941, the Advisory Committee of Technical Schools and the Education recommended that the Technical School be elevated to a college status and proposed that a new Technical College be constructed. The new college was to be built on a 47-acre piece of Government land in Gurney Road (now Jalan Semarak), Kuala Lumpur. Plans for the construction of the college, however, were put on hold when World War II erupted in Peninsular Malaysia.
During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the college was known as ‘Shihan Gakko’ then at its High Street (now Jalan Bandar) premises. It was headed by Mr. Arimoto and assisted by Mr. N.A.K Nair who later became its principal. After the liberation, the College was reopened on September 16, 1946 and the plan to build a completely new Technical College was resumed. The British Government allocated fund for capital costs of building and equipping the College. The Technical College was eventually completed and was officially opened on March 1, 1955 by Sir Donald MacGillivray, the then British High Commissioner to Malaya. In the early years, the Technical College conducted engineering course at diploma level in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Radio Engineering, Land Surveying, Building Architecture and Quality Surveying, while a special in Automobile Engineering was offered for the transportation enforcement officers. The total enrolment for 1958/1959 academic session was 320 student.
