Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College was established in 1961. Allahabad University also had a Department of Electronics & Communication engineering college but MNREC was started with two another branches of engineering- Civil & Mechanical. The foundation stone was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, and the institute was named after his father, lawyer and freedom fighter, Motilal Nehru. The founding principal of the college was Gopal Kishore Agrawal. It has a great historical importance. The main building of the college was inaugurated by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on 18 April 1965. Effective from 26 June 2002, the college became a deemed university and was renamed as Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology. From its beginnings the institute offered bachelor's degree programmes in Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. The institute was the first in the country to offer an undergraduate program in Computer Science and Engineering, which was started in 1976. In 1982-83 undergraduate programs in Electronics Engineering, and Production and Industrial Engineering were started. Postgraduate programs were introduced in 1970-71 with master's degree courses in all engineering departments. The institute now offers M. Tech. degree programs, MCA, M. Sc Mathematics and Scientific Computing courses and registers candidates for Ph. D. degrees. The institute has been recognized by the Government of India as a center for the quality improvement program in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. The institute started a two year/four semesters postgraduate degree in Management Studies in 1996. The institute added undergraduate programs in Chemical Engineering and BioTechnology in 2006. The college has been recognized by AICTE as a center for the Quality Improvement Programme. In 1972, the college established an industrial estate with 69 sheds with the objective of encouraging entrepreneurs and creating additional revenue. The college is a member of the Indo-UK REC project in the area of design. Under this scheme, a Design Center was established at a cost of about Rs. six crore, which offers training and consultancy. It was given the status of an Institute of National Importance on 15 August 2007. In 2010, the institute celebrated its Golden Jubilee year. It is among the few technical institutions in India to house two supercomputers, PARAM 8000 and PARAM 10000.
MNNIT offers a four-year undergraduate course in various engineering disciplines. Indian students are admitted though Joint Entrance Exam, while foreign students or N.R.Is are admitted through Direct Admission of Students Abroad. MNNIT offers 19 post-graduate programs of two-year duration leading to M. Tech. degrees. The Computer Science department offers a Master's in Computer Applications. It has a master's course in Mathematics and Scientific Computing and a B-school known as the School of Management Studies. Master of Social Work is also running in the institute since 2009.
Sanjiv Chaturvedi, IFS officer who has exposed many corruption cases in Haryana and AIIMS; received the Presidential reference a record four times and the Ramon Magsaysay award in 2015.
Deep Joshi, social worker and NGO activist, recipient of the Magsaysay award in 2009