Difference between IT, College and University?

damnyanks

Whats the difference ?

xx

The size of their bankrolls methinks????

damnyanks

Well whats the difference between the degree's and that likes.

The funding might not be the same. Like a university seems to get alot more students then a normal IT or College

Elmo

IT get the least amount of grants from the government or the EU. WIT and DIT (They are the bigger IT's) get the most out of all the IT's in the country. Notable both want to become Univercities.

Colleges tend to be private fee paying schools and get little funding from the government or the EU. UCG UCC UCD and other colleges change there group name to NUI The National Univercities of Ireland Since Univercity are better recognised in the EU and the rest of the world.

DCU is the other univercity while TCD Trinity holds on to the name of College but the Trinity is a well know univercity around the world and thus does not need to fall into silly name changes. (I don't go to trinity it just a fact).

You will note at one stage that most IT's were RTC's until WIT asked for the change in status and then the rest followed. I would consider Tallaght and Blanchardstown RTC's more so then IT's as the are regions of Dublin.

IT's also provide more tech. base course and don't provide many BA's, more BSci's and more diploma and cert courses.

It is just a name at the end of the day to get more money, sin e.

Chaos-Engine

"The purpose of a University is the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake".
From The Idea of a University, Cardinal Newman.

"If I had to choose between a so-called University which dispensed with residence and tutorial supervision and gave its degrees to any person who passed an examination in a wide range of subjects, and a University which merely brought a number of young men together for three or four years… I have no hesitation in giving the preference to the later…" Newman again.

That is what a university is ment to be anyway.

damnyanks

What about courses on offer. Like can any third level place make up there own or do they apply to create it ?


I'm in a college and its free, bar the usual fee's

eth0_

No, no college in Ireland can just 'make up' a cert, diploma or degree, it has to be passed by HETAC (or whatever they're called nowadays) etc, they have to show their course is up to standard and that they're covering required syllabus.


Can I ask why you're asking all this?

damnyanks

Just curious thats all

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

sceptre

Originally posted by Elmo
while TCD Trinity holds on to the name of College but the Trinity is a well know univercity around the world and thus does not need to fall into silly name changes. (I don't go to trinity it just a fact).

Er, not true at all.

TCD is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin. It's been a uni since 1588 if I remember right. Degrees are conferred by the University of Dublin - it just happens that unlike say Oxford, which has a large number of constituent colleges all making up the University of Oxford, the university of Dublin has only one college.

In the old days (up to a few years ago), UCD, UCC and UCD were all part of the National University of Ireland and got degrees conferred by the National University of Ireland. These days they confer their own.

I don't go to any of these places either (though oddly enough up till 1991, UL degrees were technically conferred/validated by UCC, which was odd given that they weren't validating their own degrees)

jd

Originally posted by sceptre
Er, not true at all.

TCD is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin. It's been a uni since 1588

1592

irishMeowKitten

i just thought they were called Universities, Colleges and ITs depending on how much practical work the students had to do... ie the student has to do a lot of hours of practical work when they're in ITs and colleges compared to the very little hours a student gets in Universities...

sceptre

Originally posted by jd
1592

Ta, my bad - mixing it up with the Spanish Armada again:(

(OT: Princeton turned up to the world debating championships a few years ago and said they belonged to the oldest university in the world - TCD pointed out that their debating society was older then Princeton university:))

Nietzschean

Originally posted by sceptre
Ta, my bad - mixing it up with the Spanish Armada again:(

(OT: Princeton turned up to the world debating championships a few years ago and said they belonged to the oldest university in the world - TCD pointed out that their debating society was older then Princeton university:))

sounds like tcd alright, ye heard about them seeking legal advice on the whole library thing in starwars 2?

Annasopra

A Snobbish comment that I heard about the difference betweens universitys and ITs

from a university point of view
"Universities educate you and ITs prepare you for a job"

From
"I've never seen a job for a philosopher advertsised"

eth0_

Originally posted by daveirl

This doesn't necessarily have to be HETAC and as far as I know they only certify courses in ITs.

example:
Engineering Degrees would be certified but IEEE and/or IEI

Ah ok. I didn't know the Uni accreditation board, i've never gone to an Irish uni :.O(

Yeah DBS run some courses that I think they accredit themselves (or at least used to), and some that are accredited by LJMU in Liverpool.

nesf

Um well the whole educate you/ prepare you for a job thingy is kinda correct. But not in an insulting sense. For example I'm studying Physics at UCC, a mate of mine is doing Applied Physics and Instrumentation in CIT. Now the difference is that I do ALOT more theoretical syllabus material than my mate. While he does alot more practical work with a veiw to that seen in the workplace. Which is the better course? Neither. Both serve a totally different purpose. The IT course trains my mate to slide easily into the workplace, and have little problems finding work. I have to do a H.Dip before that happens. But on the other hand I come out better trained in problem solving, mathematics and theoretical/experimental physics.

Tbh apart from the physics in the name of the two degrees there's very little similar in the end product.


I chose my own example to highlight a point that alot of ppl gloss over. Similar degrees in ITs and Universities have totally different aims. In alot of fields its alot easier to get a job after leaving an IT. You might be able to get a much higher paid one out of a uni but the availability of these jobs is much lower, and you've much less chance of getting one.

Plus some subjects like physics can be studied for their own sake (ala what I'm doing), we don't get any work placement or practical training. You really only get to waste money like this at a uni

Dempsey

How "strong" is a cert, diploma, degree from an IT. Is it going to get u a decent job?

leeroybrown

The main differences between Universities and the "IT's" is partially explained by their origins.

Universities were started in order to provide higher education in areas such as Law, Medicine, Engineering, the Arts. etc. These were the colleges of old and include all the current NUI's and a few others.

The IT's on the other hand were born out of another necessity. Originally people will remember them as RTC's (Regional Technical Colleges) and they are a late 20th centuary thing. They were created in order to provide Certified practical education is technical disciplines and to a certain degree were supposed to provide a follow on 3rd level education for VEC students (from "Vocational Schools").

The merging then began. IT's started to facilitate a much greater range of education and as things currently stand provide education in as many areas as Universities, and in some not catered for by Universities. Their curricula have developed and the years of lecturing have built up a situation where higher levels of certification have been introduced. Basically they're a lot more like the institution the modern University has become.

The difference still exists but the merging explains the desire of some to become NUI's (members of the National Universities of Ireland)

One difference that still exists is that many of the IT's courses still retain their original very hands on focus. (Something which the NUI's are learning from)

damnyanks

Why won't they let DIT become a university, I thought it was the biggest third level institution in Ireland.

mooman_00

universities---- the pole is usually a few feet long (6"- 8") and inhibits the universitarian from lookin down except when they look down on everyone else, and also causes universitarian's to don a strange accent and make jokes that are witty and intellegent only

college

---

the pole is smaller (4" - 6") the accent is not so strong they have more freedom and are less stiff, and witty intellectual conversations are usually broken by random acts of maddness

it's

---

poor fellas cant even get poles, they are free to move as they like enjoy witty banter with no logic or reasoning and do as they feel all the time with out being known as styck up pri.cks

Elmo

QUOTE]How "strong" is a cert, diploma, degree from an IT. Is it going to get u a decent job?[/QUOTE]

It's better for getting a job, so i have heard, due to it being more practical then univercities.

Annasopra

How "strong" is a cert, diploma, degree from an IT. Is it going to get u a decent job?

It's better for getting a job, so i have heard, due to it being more practical then univercities.

Yes short term but it is claimed that long term University graduates earn more

Then again when you study philosophy you can't exactly go off and become a philosopher

Elmo

I some how don't think it makes much of a difference at the end of the day.

I don't think I would be to happy if the same qualification from a Uni got more money then me just because I went to an IT.

DCU is supposed to be the most practical Uni isn't it?

daveirl

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BattleBoar

Interestingly enough, its quite different in the US, at least with respect to some IT. Places such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology are pretty much the very best in the world at engineering/physics/maths.

Of course, universities such as Stanford, Illinois, Princeton, Harvard etc are also at the top, but you certainly wouldn't say someone with engineering, science, or maths from Stanford or Harvard had a better degree than someone from MIT or Cal Tech. In fact, it would almost certainly be the other way around, if anything.

daveirl

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D nominater

1. University(+a cathedral? etc.) needed for a city to be a city.. I.T.'s have no such power.

2. Snobbishness ... there is an inherent snobbishness in universities above I.T.'s, I.T.'s don't have such a snobishness towards universities but rather a reactionionary reverse polarity 'snobbishness' towards universities(esp. nearby universities) designed to cancel out the downing fx of university snobs...
this is an important difference between universities and I.T.'s

3.Size...universities are bigger,funding,and prefabs(I.T.'s have a lot of prefabs),(location?,uni's nearer urban centres?)

4.it is said that I.T.'s babysit you a lot more than universities,to be more accurate,universities lecture , I.T.'s teach

5.course,strictness & other rule,procedure differences....

6.all the other stuff (it's pretty obvious) UNIVERSITIES VS IT'S

Elmo

University(+a cathedral? etc.) needed for a city to be a city.. I.T.'s have no such power

I thought this but what about Maynooth its not a city while waterford is a city

4.it is said that I.T.'s babysit you a lot more than universities,to be more accurate,universities lecture , I.T.'s teach

Very true

Johnmb

I was always under the impression that if you only had undergraduate courses you were a college, and if you had post-graduate courses you were a university. As for the difference between a college (eg. an RTC) and an IT, the only difference was the salaries of the staff. When the RTCs became ITs, the courses didn't change, but the staff were moved onto higher salary scales. It was more of an administerative difference than anything else.

ballooba

Originally posted by D nominater
3.Size...universities are bigger,funding,and prefabs(I.T.'s have a lot of prefabs),(location?,uni's nearer urban centres?)

Total students in UCD (Ireland's largest university) in 2000::
18,357

Total students in DIT (Ireland's largest IT) in 2000::
15,068

I always thought DIT was ireland's biggest college?

btw
Total uni students::
77,478
Total IT students::
62,928

[edit]
From DIT website::

It is the largest educational institution in the country, with more than 21,000 students engaged in programmes which range from craft training to post-doctoral research, with an emphasis throughout on applied learning.

I really do have too much time on my hands.
[/edit]

Moonbeam

Cities are also cities due to royal charter that is why kilkenny and waterford are cities,
From my experience I have attended bout and IT and a college, I found that the college was very like school in ways,the rules the lack of freedom but as a result we had good attendance it was also much smaller then an It or a Uni so it was alot more personal and you got alot of one2one attention from the teachers,It was also extrememly practiacial and prepared you straight for the work force,
In the IT there was alot more freedom,less practicial work(there was still alot) much more facilites,bigger libraries,extra subjects that were not immediately relevent to work but also relevent to life,
I have also found evening courses to me more or less the same as IT lectures,
I personally would not do a practicial subject ie computers in an Irish uni ,I am aware dcu has a good enough comp apps course,but there is also no offence meant to any of them the ucd graduates who barely know how to switch on a pc never mind work with them which from my experience is the majority of them,
In theory they know alot about programming etc but in practice switching on a pc can prove a perplexing challenge to them,