The term institute of technology is used in many countries where polytechnic is uncommon. In other countries the opposite is true.
Sometimes, also institutes of technology are engineering and science research intense universities when they meet conditions necessary to be formally considered a university: autonomy to offer masters and doctoral degrees and independence as research institutions. In the USA famous examples include Caltech, MIT, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Rochester Institute of Technology. In India, Indian Institutes of Technology are specific elite institutes which were based on a post WWII recommendation for industrialization. Those are highly regarded full chartered universities with a long history.
In several countries, like Germany, Switzerland and Turkey, institutes of technology and polytechnics are institutions of higher education, and have been accredited to award academic degrees and doctorates. Famous examples are the ETH Zurich, İYTE and RWTH Aachen, all considered universities.
In countries like Iran, Finland, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore or the United Kingdom, there is often a significant and confused distinction between polytechnics and universities. In Ireland the term institute of technology is more favored synonym of a regional technical college though the latter is the legally correct term; however, Dublin Institute of Technology is a university in all but name as it can confer degrees in accordance with law, Cork Institute of Technology and another of other Institutes of Technology have delegated authority from HETAC to make awards to and including Masters degree level--Level 9 of the National Framework for Qualifications (NFQ)--for all areas of study and Doctorate level in a number of others.
In a number of countries, although being today generally considered similar institutions of higher learning across many countries, polytechnics and institutes of technology used to have a quite different statute among each other, its teaching competences and organizational history. In many cases polytechnic were a former designation for a vocational institution, before it has been granted the exclusive right to award academic degrees and can be truly called an institute of technology. A number of polytechnics providing higher education is simply a result of a formal upgrading from their original and historical role as intermediate technical education schools. In some situations, former polytechnics or other non-university institutions have emerged solely through an administrative change of statutes, which often included a name change with the introduction of new designations like institute of technology, polytechnic university, university of applied sciences, or university of technology for marketing purposes. Such emergence of so many upgraded polytechnics, former vocational education and technical schools converted into more university-like institutions has caused concern where the lack of specialized intermediate technical professionals lead to industrial skill shortages in some fields, being also associated to an increase of the graduate unemployment rate. This is mostly the case in those countries, where the education system is not controlled by the state and everybody can grant degrees. Evidence have also shown a decline in the general quality of teaching and graduate's preparation for the workplace, due to the fast-paced conversion of that technical institutions to more advanced higher level institutions.
Hogeschool institutions in the Flemish Community of Belgium (such as the Erasmus Hogeschool Brussel) are currently undergoing a process of academization. They form associations with a university and integrate research into the curriculum, which will allow them to deliver academic master's degrees.
In the Netherlands, four former institutes of technology have become universities over the past decades. These are the current three Technical Universities (at Delft, Eindhoven and Enschede), plus the former agricultural institute in Wageningen. A list of all hogescholen in the Netherlands, including some which might be called polytechnics, can be found here.
Some Finnish polytechnics are:
a complete list may be found in List of polytechnics in Finland
France has some polytechnic type higher education establishments which belong to a group of renowned and specialized institutions called Grandes écoles; they generally have full names starting with École supérieure (higher school) or École nationale (national school), often shortened or summarized into acronyms (for instance, the full name of the École des Mines is École nationale supérieure des Mines de Paris or ENSMP). These schools are the most prestigious higher education institutions in the country. This may lead to some confusion in English-speaking countries, where the term "polytechnic" often carries a more average connotations.
In particular, the École Polytechnique is popularly seen as the most prestigious scientific and technical school in the country, giving rise to popular expressions such as Pas besoin d'avoir fait Polytechnique pour comprendre ça ("No need to have been to Polytechnique to understand this", to be said of something which should be readily understood).
In the French speaking part of Switzerland exists also the term Haute Ecole Specialisee for a type of institution called Fachhochschule in the German speaking part of the country. (see below)
France has many kind of Institute of technology, some of them are a part of Universities, they are called Institut Universitaire de technologie.
Most of French Institutes of technology are not polytechniques but specialized :
There used to be a differentiation between a Fachhochschule and Technische Hochschule (or Technische Universität) and the Diplom degree of the Fachhochschule is considered below a university degree. However, through the Bologna process, the Bachelor's, Master's degrees have been made equivalent. The Technische Hochschule focuses more on research and can grant doctoral degrees.
The Fachhochschule, in contrast, has many similarities to the Hogeschool in Belgium and in the Netherlands and to the Ammattikorkeakoulu in Finland and can grant Bachelor's, Diplom (FH) and Master's degrees. But the Fachhochschule offers university-like education in contrast to the Hogeschool which offers more vocational education. The Fachhochschule performs research in the field of applying science.
On the other hand, there are Greek technological educational institutes (Ανώτατα Τεχνολογικά Εκπαιδευτικά Ιδρύματα - ΑTEI) which do not have full university status. After the 2001 Higher Education Reform Act (N.1416) Technological Educational Institutes constitute a complementary part of the public higher education in Greece. They confer 4-year bachelor's degrees, but in practice their graduates have still fewer rights than universities'. Among other differences they have, the technological educational institutes are allowed to run graduate programs only in collaboration with universities.
After successfully completing their diploma in polytechnic, students can gain lateral entry to engineering degree (under graduate) courses called BE which are conducted by engineering colleges affiliated to universities.
Polytechnic Equivalent Diploma
These are diploma equivalent to diploma issued by polytechnics in India. These courses are conducted by institutions like IETE [www.iete.org], IME 
Popular Polytechnic's in India
Pusa Polytechnic
Also See Iraqi Technical Colleges and Institutes
Dublin Institute of Technology developed separately from the Regional Technical College system, and after several decades of association with the University of Dublin, Trinity College it acquired the authority to confer its own degrees.
See also: Community College
Politecnico is the common term used in in Italyfor the university of applied sciences.Now in Italy exist 3 Politecnici
In the Italian speaking part of Switzerland exists also the term Scuola Universitaria Professionnale for a type of institution called Fachhochschule in the German speaking part of the country. (see at "German language areas")
See the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Imperial College of Engineering, forerunner of The University of Tokyo's engineering faculty. See also Kyushu Institute of Technology, Osaka Institute of Technology and Nagoya Institute of Technology.
See also Technical education in Japan and Colleges of Technology in Japan.
See also: Education in Malaysia.
Since the 1990s, there has been consolidation in New Zealand's state-owned tertiary education system. In the polytechnic sector: Wellington Polytechnic amalgamated with Massey University. The Central Institute of Technology explored a merger with the Waikato Institute of Technology, which was abandoned, but later, after financial concerns, controversially amalgamated with Hutt Valley Polytechnic, which in turn became Wellington Institute of Technology. Some smaller polytechnics in the North Island, such as Waiarapa Polytechnic, amalgamated with UCOL. (The only other amalgamations have been in the colleges of education.)
The Auckland University of Technology is the only polytechnic to have been elevated to university status; while Unitec has had repeated attempts blocked by government policy and consequent decisions; Unitec has not been able to convince the courts to overturn these decisions.
See also: List of polytechnics and institutes of technology in New Zealand and Education in New Zealand
These institutes are located throughout Pakistan and are in service since early 1950s.
Polytechnic Schools (Escolas Politécnicas) were created in the 19th century in Lisbon (Escola Politécnica) and Porto (Academia Politécnica), and were merged into the newly created universities of Lisbon and Porto in 1911. Other than the name, they were not related at all with the current polytechnic subsystem which exists in Portugal since the 1970s, or to any current institution belonging to them. The current "Polytechnical Institutes" started to open after 1974. Some of them have its origins in the former vocational education "Institutes of Industry and Commerce" (Institutos Industriais e Comerciais) like the ones founded in Lisbon (Instituto Industrial e Comercial de Lisboa), Porto, and Coimbra. The polytechnic institutes (institutos politécnicos) of Portugal used to be higher education institutions with very different roles and competences of those encompassed and provided by the universities, because the polytechnics didn't award neither masters nor doctoral degrees, and unlike universities, they didn't develop independent research activities. However, since 2007, after many reforms, upgrades, and changes, including the Bologna process, the Portuguese polytechnic institutes started to be considered as de facto technical universities in a number of fields, with little formal difference between their 1st and 2nd cycle degrees and those awarded by the classic full chartered universities (polytechnics do not have competences to award 3rd cycle doctorate degrees and, in general, they don't develop independent research work). The polytechnical institutes are organized into confederations of autonomous polytechnic higher education units comprising a wide range of fields from engineering or technologies to education to accountancy to agriculture (called institutes and schools). Since the creation of the first polytechnical institutes that started in the late 1970s, to 1999 after new legislation has been approved for these institutions, the polytechnics were only allowed to offer a three year bachelor degree (bacharelato). In opposition, the Portuguese universities conferred 4 to 6 years major bachelor degrees, known in many countries as licentiate degree (licenciatura). The universities were also the only institutions awarding masters and doctoral degrees in Portugal to graduated people having the licenciatura diploma conferred exclusively in the universities. In general, the polytechnic system has been often regarded as a second choice alternative to the university for a large number of students. There is a historic connotation of the Portuguese polytechnical institutes as the schools of last resort, because of their general low selectiveness (which was clearly substandard from the 1980s to the mid-2000s), lack of historical notability, and diminute number of highly distinguished alumni and professors, which some feel hurts their reputation.
See also: list of colleges and universities in Portugal and Higher Education in Portugal
See also: List of institutions of higher learning in Russia
Polytechnics offer three year diploma courses in subjects such as information technology, engineering subjects and other vocational fields. There are a total of 5 polytechnics in Singapore. They are namely:
The institute of technical education offers shorter programmes up to 2 year certificates in a wide variety of fields, ranging from beauty therapy to nursing, electronics, business and information technology. There are currently three colleges within ITE. One of them is a recently opened large campus while the other two are each composed of five smaller campuses which will be replaced in the coming years by a large campus for each college. The three colleges are:
See also: Education in Singapore
''See also: List of universities in South Africa
There are two former institutes of technology, which already changed their name to "University of Technology": Rajamangala University of Technology (formerly Institute of Technology and Vocational Education) and King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (Thonburi Technology Institute).
Institutes of technology with different origins are Asian Institute of Technology, which developed from SEATO Graduate School of Engineering, and Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, an engineering school of Thammasat University.
See also: Education in Thailand
See also: Education in Turkey
Academic degrees in polytechnics were validated by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) from 1965 to 1992. The CNAA was chartered by the British government to validate and award degrees and maintain national quality assurance standards. A CNAA degree was recognised as equivalent to a university degree and the courses were under strict scrutiny by assessors external to the Polytechnics. After 1992, the polytechnics (new universities) awarded their own degrees. Sub-degree courses at these institutions were validated by the Business & Technology Education Council (BTEC). Most BTEC qualifications have been phased out of new universities and transferred to colleges of further education.
While most polytechnics were formed in the expansion of higher education in the 1960s, some can trace their history back much further than this. For instance the London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), emerged from the Royal Polytechnic Institution which was founded at Regent Street London in 1838. The first UK Institution to use the name "Polytechnic" was the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, which it still retains, together with the affectionate nick-name "The Poly". The polytechnics were often seen as ranking below universities in the provision of higher education, due to their lack of degree-awarding powers, the fact that they concentrated on applied education for work, had less research than the universities, and because the qualifications necessary to gain a place in one were lower than for a university (the failure rate in the first year of undergraduate courses was high due to a rigorous filtering process). However, in terms of an undergraduate education this was a misconception since all polytechnics offered academic degrees validated by the CNAA from bachelor and Masters degree to PhD research degrees. Also professional degrees in, for instance, engineering, town planning, law, and architecture were rigorously validated by various professional institutions. Many Polytechnics argued that a CNAA degree was often superior to many university degrees due to the external independent validation process employed by the CNAA.
Although many former polytechnics remain low in the University League Tables, some have steadily improved and can be found in the top half of some of the tables of all universities. Examples include Middlesex University (ranked 19th in The Guardian 2004 league table, but 96th in The Times 2007 table) and Oxford Brookes University (2004 The Guardian 26th; The Times 2007 54th).
The polytechnics changed their names when they gained university status. Some simply dropped "Polytechnic" and added "University" to their titles, however this was often not possible as there was another University with the name. In these cases by far the most popular choice of title was "Metropolitan", because the institution was situated in a city or other large metropolitan area. Examples are Manchester Metropolitan University and Leeds Metropolitan University. These titles are often shortened to "Met" (Man Met, Leeds Met) or an acronym (MMU, LMU). Others adopted a name which reflects the local area, such as Nottingham Trent University (named after the river Trent which flows through Nottingham) and Sheffield Hallam University ('Hallam' referes to the area of South Yorkshire in which Sheffield is situated). The Ulster Polytechnic remains the only polytechnic to unite with a university; this occurred in 1984.
The designation "Institute of Technology" itself was not used consistently in higher education; for example in the British university sector it was used only by the postgraduate institutions Cranfield Institute of Technology (now Cranfield University) and Wessex Institute of Technology. Two university institutes which also taught undergraduates used the related designation "Institutes of Science and Technology"; UWIST (University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology), both of which have merged with other universities. The designation was also used for a time by two Scottish Central Institutions (Dundee and Robert Gordon's Institutes of Technology) plus the Bolton and Bradford Institutes of Technology, all four of which now have university status and have university in their titles. In addition, Loughborough University of Technology had university status since 1966 and was a fully-fledged university and the only one in the UK to have the designation University of Technology.
See also British Universities and for former Polytechnics, New Universities.
A handful of American universities include the phrases "Institute of Technology", "Polytechnic Institute", "Polytechnic University", or similar phrasing in their names; these are generally research-intensive universities with a focus on engineering, science and technology. The level of academic rigor in these schools may vary from entry-level state universities to elite schools such as:
Conversely, schools dubbed "technical colleges" or "technical institutes" generally provide post-secondary training in technical and mechanical fields focusing on training vocational skills primarily at a community college level -- parallel and sometimes equivalent to the first two years at a bachelor's-granting institution. The academic level of these schools varies by course of study; some courses are geared toward immediate employment in a trade, while others are tracked to transfer into a four-year program. Some of these technical institutes are for-profit organizations (such as ITT Technical Institute) compared to most other non-profit educational institutes.
Nowadays, most of the Institutos de Tecnología are privately run businesses, with varying degrees of quality. They are widely regarded, sometimes incorrectly, as inferior to the university education.
Most of these institutes award diplomas after three or three and a half years of education. Few, if any Institutos de Tecnología have any research facilities.
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