Costa Rica Institute of Technology

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**Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica**
Motto	Formación Sólida, Óptimos Resultados
Established	1971
Type	Public, undergraduate, graduate.
Rector	Eugenio Trejos
Location	Cartago, Costa Rica
Campus	Urban, 90 ha
Other Locations	San Carlos, San José
Website	www.itcr.ac.cr

The Costa Rica Institute of Technology or Technological Institute of Costa Rica (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica), also known as the ITCR or TEC, is a public educational institute in Cartago, Costa Rica. It has the mission of: "To contribute to the integral development of the country, by means of the formation of human resources, research and extension; keeping the scientific-technical leadership, the academic excellence and the strict attachment to the ethical, environmental and humanists norms, from a state university perspective of quality and competitiveness at national and international level".

The Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC) is a national autonomous institution of higher education, dedicated to the teaching, research and extension in technology and associated sciences aimed at the develepment of Costa Rica. It was created by Law No. 4777 on June, 10, 1971. Its main campus is in Cartago, Costa Rica, 24 km east of San José, Costa Rica, the capital of the country.

The TEC offers both undergraduate and graduate studies in a wide range of fields, including engineering (construction, industrial production, electronics, industrial maintenance), computer science and business management.

[edit] History

[edit] Recent Political Views

By February 2006 the academic and student union authorities of the Institute had voiced frank opposition (http://www.semanario.ucr.ac.cr/de_la_u/articulos.htm) to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA or TLC, Tratado de Libre Comercio) pending of discussion at the Legislative Assembly and already approved in Dominican Republic and the rest of Central America. Noteworthily, organized students from the TEC played an important role in the Protests of the Combo, in 2000, when massive and sustained uprisings of most various sectors from the civil society managed to overthrow a law already approved by the Assembly's two biggest party fractions, those of the PLN (National Liberation Party) and the PUSC (Social Christian Unity Party). During the protests of the Combo students from the TEC blocked many times the main road from Cartago to San José, doing as many over the nation's roads, following the example of the first onion and potato peasants who barricaded the Florencio del Castillo highway (linking San José to Cartago) in protest against the government of Miguel Rodriguez's neoliberal policies that in their view were ruining them (by lowering taxes on importation of heavily subsidized, foreign competing goods).