Institutes of technology in Ireland

An Institute of Technology or IT is a type of higher education college found in the Republic of Ireland. There are a total of fourteen colleges that use the title of Institute of Technology, which were created from the late 1960s and were formerly known as Regional Technical Colleges. The exception to this was Dublin Institute of Technology which emerged independently of the Regional College system.

The idea of the institutions was first announced by Patrick Hillery in 1963. A year later, a site for an institution in Carlow was identified.

The Investment in Education (1962) and Training of Technicians in Ireland (1964) reports greatly accelerated the trend in Ireland for education reform and development particularly in technical education, similar to that in other Western Countries at the time.

The Training of Technicians in Ireland (1964) report identified significant skills gaps, including:

The Steering Committee on Technical Education, also called The Mulcahy Report (1967), was an important milestone in framing the institutional structures and functions calling for:

The building programme commenced in 1968, with the first institutions formally opened their doors in 1970, and other colleges were added during the following decade. Some colleges developed from earlier institutions and colleges, involving amalgamation, but most were completely new institutions. A Regional Technical College for Limerick was cancelled after a National Institute for Higher Education was announced for the city. Finally, in 1993, an institution was created for Limerick. Two additional institutions have been created since, bringing the total to thirteen.

†With the constituent Colleges originally established in 1887, Dublin Institute of Technology was reestablished in 1992. It was the first third level college to be called an Institute of Technology and was created under separate legislation with different powers than the other thirteen colleges. This includes the awarding of its own degrees up to doctorate level.

The institutions were run under Section 21 (2) of the Vocational Education Acts from 1970 until 1992 as special subcommittees of the Vocational Education Committees, and placed on an independent basis thereafter by the Regional Technical Colleges Acts in 1993. In the late 1990s, all of the institutions were upgraded to Institute of Technology status. This was in recognition of the high standards, including university level research, which takes place at them. Additionally institutions have been given delegated authority to confer their own awards in some cases up to Doctoral level. The Regional Technical Colleges Acts still apply to all the institutions, with Dublin Institute of Technology set up under previous legislation and been quite distinct.

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