College profile: Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Dublin

Institute of Technology Blanchardstown

Founded: First students matriculated September 1999.

Location: Blanchardstown Road North, Dublin.

Campus: Currently housed in an advance building, but four new buildings, including a library, will be ready for the 2002-2003 academic year.

Director: Dr Mary Meaney. Previously held positions as lecturer and registrar at Dublin City University, then worked as registrar at Blanchardstown before being appointed to director last months. Holds a doctorate in environmental chemistry from DCU.

Number of Students: 240-250. A new class of that size will be added each year, adding up to a total student body of over 1,000.

Number of faculty: 24, but recruiting is currently ongoing to expand the number of lecturers.

Number of certificate programs: three - computing, electronic and computer engineering and business studies.

Number of diploma programs: three - business studies, information technologies and languages (French, German or Spanish).

Number of degree programs: six

Number of library seats: 67, but new library will have hundreds.

Number of volumes in library: 2,700 but expanding all the time.

Number of computer labs: 10, with about 30 computers in each.

Number of college societies: 13

Facility most proud of: CAN8 fully interactive, computerised language lab, the only one of its kind in the State.

How the college came about: ITB was created by the Government to increase participation in higher education among the residents of north-west Dublin, south Meath and north Kildare. ITB was also created to encourage more non-standard students - those with disabilities and those over 23 years - to pursue a college education.

Student Opinion (Neil Curry, vice-president of the ITB student union.): "It is a bit harder to be going to a school that has just started. After all, we don't have many of the facilities that we would have at other schools. But you have to balance that against the type of education we are getting here - which is top notch because we get so much one-on-one attention because the school is still so small. And you have to balance it against the social life, which is also wonderful because everyone knows everyone else."