through all the country geographic space in the way of Regional Faculties. The Buenos Aires Institute of Technology (ITBA) is other important recognized institute of technology with renowned and prestige in the country. Australia 1970s–1990s During the 1970s to early 1990s, the term was used to describe state owned and funded technical schools that offered both vocational and higher education. They were part of the College of Advanced Education system. In the 1990s most of these merged with existing universities or formed new ones of their own. These new universities often took the title University of Technology, for marketing rather than legal purposes. AVCC report The most prominent such university in each state founded the Australian Technology Network a few years later. 1990s–today Since the mid-1990s, the term has been applied to some technically minded technical and further education (TAFE) institutes. A recent example is the Melbourne Polytechnic rebranding and repositioning in 2014 from Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE. These primarily offer vocational education, although some like Melbourne Polytechnic are expanding into higher education offering vocationally oriented applied bachelor's degrees. This usage of the term is most prevalent historically in NSW and the ACT. The new terminology is apt given that this category of institution are becoming very much like the institutes of the 1970s–1990s period. In 2009, the old college system in Tasmania and TAFE Tasmania have started a 3-year restructure to become the Tasmanian Polytechnic www.polytechnic.tas.edu.au, Tasmanian Skills Institute www.skillsinstitute.tas.edu.au and Tasmanian Academy www.academy.tas.edu.au In the higher education sector, there are seven designated universities of technology in Australia (though, note, not all use the phrase "university of technology", such as the Universities of Canberra and South Australia, which used to be Colleges of Advanced Education before transitioning into fully-fledged universities with the ability – most important of all – to confer doctorates): Curtin University, Western Australia Queensland University of Technology, Queensland Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Victoria Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory University of South Australia, South Australia University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales Austria Universities of technology These institutions are entitled to confer habilitation and doctoral degrees and focus on research. Graz University of Technology (13,454 students, founded 1811, Hochschule since 1865, doctoral degrees since 1901, university since 1975) TU Wien (27,923 students, founded 1815, Hochschule since 1872, doctoral degrees since 1901, university since 1975) University of Natural Resources and