Dublin Institute of Technology

Located in the centre of Dublin, Ireland's capital city, Dublin Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as DIT) (Irish: Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Atha Cliath) is one of the largest higher education institutions in Ireland. It has been ranked in top 100 universities globally under 50 years old. Though instated in its present form in 1992, the institution can trace an unbroken history back to the establishment in 1887 of the first technical education institution in Ireland. It is recognised particularly for degree and postgraduate programmes in Product Design, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Engineering, Science, Marketing, Hospitality, Music, Optometry, Pharmaceuticals, Construction, Digital Media and Journalism. Alumni of the Dublin Institute of Technology include many of Ireland's leading writers, artists and politicians.

About

Academics

Academically DIT comprises four colleges; Engineering and Built Environment, Business, Science and Health and Arts and Tourism and a Graduate Research School. There are twenty-seven academic schools, four major research institutes, many research centres and groups and various technology transfer and commercial units.

Dublin

Dublin (/ˈdʌblᵻn/, Irish: Baile Átha Cliath [blʲaːˈklʲiəh]) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey. The city has an urban area population of 1,273,069. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2011, was 1,801,040 persons.

Founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Ireland's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is administered by a City Council. The city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha-", placing it among the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy and industry.

Institute of technology

Institute of technology (also: university of technology, polytechnic university, technikon, and technical college) is a designation employed for a wide range of learning institutions awarding different types of degrees and operating often at variable levels of the educational system. It may be an institution of higher education and advanced engineering and scientific research or professional vocational education, specializing in science, engineering, and technology or different sorts of technical subjects. It may also refer to a secondary education school focused in vocational training. The term institute of technology is often abbreviated IT and is not to be confused with information technology.

The English term polytechnic appeared in the early 19th century, from the French École Polytechnique, an engineering school founded in 1794 in Paris. The French term comes from the Greek πολύ (polú or polý) meaning "many" and τεχνικός (tekhnikós) meaning "arts".

While the terms "institute of technology" and "polytechnic" are synonymous, the preference concerning which one is the preferred term varies from country to country.