Institut Teknologi Brunei (ITB), the new University on Engineering and Technology, was officially upgraded to a University status by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam in his Titah during the Teacher’s Day Celebration on the 18th October 2008. The institute will, however, retain its old name.

ITB was established more than 22 years ago as an institution of higher learning offering Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes in the fields of Engineering, ICT and Business. It has developed itself as a reputable institution locally and internationally through its practical-oriented (hands-on) and industry-based programmes and its research and development activities.  The academic programmes of the Institute are divided into two schools namely the School of Engineering and the School of Business Management and Information Technology. The School of Engineering is made up of three departments, namely Electrical and Communication Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Currently the school offers 6 Higher National Diploma Programmes in all the three departments. In addition, the school collaborates in the following bachelor degree programmes with foreign universities: The Department of Civil Engineering collaborates in a twinning programme with Queen's University of Belfast (QUB), United Kingdom in B.Eng/M.Eng. programme in Civil Engineering. The Department of Electrical & Communication Engineering conducted the engineering components of the 1st and 2nd year of the twinning degree programme in Electrical and Electronic Engineering between UBD and University of Glasgow, Scotland.  The School of Business Management and Information Technology consists of three departments namely Business and Management, Computing and Information Systems and Communication, Languages and Professional Development. It offers 7 Higher National Diploma Programmes in the departments of Business Management and Computing and Information Systems.

The number of students who applied to the HND programmes has been increasing since its establishment in January 1986 and so is the twinning degree programmes since its introduction in 2001, when it offered the (1+2) twinning degree programme in Civil Engineering with QUB. Students spend 1 year at ITB and complete their final 2 years at Queens University, Belfast. Since its founding, ITB started offering only 3 HND programmes namely Business & Management, Computer Studies and Electrical and Electronic Engineering. In August 1998, two new programmes, namely, HND in Civil Engineering and HND in Mechanical Engineering were introduced when ITB moved from its old campus in Jalan Muara to its current permanent campus in Kg Tungku, about 20km from Bandar Seri Begawan. Subsequently, more HND programmes were offered with the introduction of HNDs in Network Engineering in January 2007, Electrical Power & Control Engineering in August 2007, Internet & Multimedia Development and new names for the Business HND programmes namely Business (Accounting), Business (Finance), Business (Management) and  Business (Marketing) were just been introduced in August 2008. The (1+2) twinning degree in Civil Engineering was then upgraded to (2+1 / 2+2) B.Eng/M.Eng in Civil Engineering and Environmental & Civil Engineering since August 2007. With the recent ITB upgrading to a university status, plans are already in place to offer degree programmes in August 2009 and 2010, these are:

To date, ITB has produced 2403 HND graduates and 71 of the Civil Engineering twinning degree students have graduated with B.Eng/M.Eng qualifications from QUB in a variety of specialisations.

As many as 230 and 294 HND students have graduated in 2006 and 2007 respectively and about 300 will be graduating in December 2008. Although there is no exact numbers of ITB HND graduates who pursue higher studies at degree level, depending on the degree of their achievement at HND, their qualifications are accepted direct to the year 2 of the degree programmes in the United Kingdom. As of May 2007, 97 out of 230 that graduated in December 2006 have been employed. A tracer study is being conducted to investigate ITB HND graduates absorption to employment and their destination for those graduated in December 2007 and the remaining that graduated in December 2006.  

Although HND programmes in Business and Computing were the most popular among the applicants since ITB establishment, the interest for other programmes offered by ITB are undoubtedly emerging since the last 10 years. The most popular programme among the international students is the HND offered in Electrical and Communication Engineering Department. The institution welcomes international students to study at ITB. Since 1995, a total of 14 international students were offered scholarship for a place at ITB HND programmes out of which 10 of them graduated with their HNDs, 3 did not managed to complete their study and 1 of them still pursuing his study in his semester 1 period. The list of countries of origin are: Sierra Leone (1), Zimbabwe (1), Western Samoa (1), Commonwealth of Dominica (2), Zambia (2), Bangladesh (2), Malaysia (1), Seychelles (1), St Vincent & Grenadines (1), Republic of Chad (1) and Cameroon (1).