Nit is a one of the premier institute and most prestige college in India after IIT National Institutes of Technology have emerged as attractive options for students who seek quality education in engineering.

Certain factors such as quality of teaching, placements and infrastructure facilities have made the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) an attractive proposition to students when it comes to choosing an institution for pursuing studies in engineering. These premier technical institutions of national repute, with Deemed University status, number 19. "NITs are declared nationally important institutions.One thing about NITs is that almost 95 per cent of its alumni find employment within the country. There is no brain drain as in the case of IITs, Dr. Gokhale observes. Moreover, these are truly national institutes with 50 per cent of their total seats reserved for students from States other than where the respective NIT are located, Dr. Gokhale adds.Experts point out that many of the lower rank holders in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), the test for gaining admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), would opt for B.Tech. courses in NITs if they were particular about joining an engineering course as they might be able to only gain admission for integrated M.Sc. programme in the IITs otherwise.The admission to the B.Tech./B.Arch. courses in NITs and other institutions is through the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). The first AIEEE was held in 2003. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts the examination. NIT Patna is the second oldest engineering college of India. Its origin can be traced to 1886 with the establishment of a survey training school and subsequent renaming it to Bihar college of Engineering in 1900. A graduate level curriculum was introduced in 1924. It was renamed Bihar College of Engineering in 1932. In 2004 the government of India upgraded the college to National Institute of Technology (NIT) status, as the state of Bihar had lost its only Regional Engineering College (REC), located at Jamshedpur, when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000. By 2002, the Indian government decided to upgrade all RECs to NITs, with the aim of having at least one NIT per state. Bihar College of Engineering was the first institute to be directly upgraded to NIT status. In 2007, it was granted Institute of National Importance status in accordance with the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007.

The institute maintains a central library which has 1,50,000 books and 1,100 e-journals and works for about 10 hours per day. The Central Library has an e-resource section on the ground floor, a study section on the first floor and a separate section for computer related books on the second floor.Every department has a computer lab to sharpen the students programming skills and to give hands-on experience with the use of the software in their field of study.