The mission of the Institute is to serve its students and the community by meeting the skills needs in the economy and increasing the level of participation in third-level education and training, particularly in Dublin North-West and its environs.

The Institute will do this:

by achieving consistently high standards of relevance and quality in teaching, research, development and consultancy. by offering a welcoming and supportive environment to students from all educational and social backgrounds and to adults wishing to increase or update their level of technical skills.

The Institute is adopting admissions and student support policies to ensure that a relatively high proportion of its students are ‘non-standard entrants’ such as mature students:

applicants without Leaving Certificate qualifications who can meet entry requirements in other ways. students with disabilities. students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

The Institute will provide a flexible third-level programme designed to meet regional and national requirements with an emphasis on:

• specialist higher education for leading-edge industries in the region,
• upgrading of specialist technical/technological skills,
• continuing education and the needs of mature students,
• in-service courses, retraining and updating of skills,
• special needs arising from educational disadvantage or disability.

The learning strategy of the Institute is aimed at guiding students towards the levels of knowledge and skills acquisition for an evolving working life. Inherent in this approach is the essential attitudinal development for increasing motivation and for promoting self-management, critical analysis, decision-making, problem solving and entrepreneurship.

The Institute is providing education and training that is relevant and responsive to economic and social needs both locally and nationally. It is designing and delivering a range of high-quality courses for full- time and part-time students. The courses aim to produce graduates who can meet the human resource requirements of leading-edge, high-technology industries.

The Institute’s courses are designed in such a way that they are made available to a wide range of students in a flexible way. Flexibility in the provision of courses includes co-operative education, work experience, modularisation and credit accumulation.