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G.M.I.T. Galway

The opening of the Regional Technical Colleges (later to become Institutes of Technology) in the early 1970s initiated one of the most exciting developments in Irish education during the twentieth century.



They brought a strong vocational orientation, increased participation and an important regional dimension to higher education in Ireland.



Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology has been to the forefront in contributing to these achievements. It became the first Regional Technical College to receive degree recognition for a course; to inaugurate a joint degree with a university; to establish an add-on degree; to introduce work placement as an integral part of some courses; to run a course through Irish; to organise extra-mural courses and day seminars; to establish a Research and Consultancy Unit and to pioneer European Union (EU) student exchanges. It soon established a national and international reputation in many fields and became active in applied research and scholarship. From its inception, the Institute cultivated Liberal Studies and European languages as well as education in art and design.



The then Regional Technical College Galway was established in 1972 under the aegis of the City of Galway Vocational Education Committee. The first students entered the College on Monday, 18th September,1972 and a new era in the educational history of the city and region began.



Over the years, the range and content of courses were developed to prepare graduates for life and for the needs of a rapidly developing economy. The College established links and partnerships with various organisations in the West of Ireland, including Mountbellew Agricultural College with the inauguration of a National Certificate in Business Studies (Agri Business) in 1987, a centre in Letterfrack with Connemara West Ltd. in the same year, a second campus in Castlebar in 1994, as well as another campus at Cluain Mhuire in Galway City. The College name was changed to Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in January 1998 and is now a multi-campus regional institution catering for over 4,500 full-time and close to another 4,500 part-time students, a highly respected institution for the standard of its courses and the calibre of its graduates.



With the enactment of the Regional Technical Colleges' Act 1992 on 1st January, 1993, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology became an autonomous institution of higher education with a legal framework to engage in various non-teaching activities like research and consultancy. The Institute has a wide range of research projects underway, many financed by Enterprise Ireland together with local and national businesses. The Institute was one of the early Irish participants in various European Union (EU) student exchange programmes and under the current SOCRATES programme has a commitment to accepting around 160 European students and sending out about 100 each year. Links have been established with around 90 colleges of higher education throughout the EU, Eastern Europe, Norway and the USA.



The Institute has become an important national and regional resource and a catalyst for the promotion of economic, social and cultural development. A planned programme of infrastructural development will provide excellent facilities to cater for the needs of a new century and millennium. The Institute sees itself making a unique contribution to the promotion of balanced regional development within the state, as well as contributing to the nurturing of a progressive, creative, caring and enterprising society: economically competitive, technologically advanced, socially just, culturally enlightened and environmentally sensitive.



GMIT at Galway has four schools at the Galway campus: Business and Humanities, Science, Hotel and Catering Studies and Engineering.