from the Regional Technical College system and after several decades of association with the University of Dublin it acquired the authority to confer its own degrees before becoming a member of the T.U. Dublin. The Technological Higher Education Association is the representative body for the various Institutes of Technology in Ireland. The approval of Ireland's first Technological University, TU Dublin was announced in July 2018. It is the result of a merger of three of the ITs in the County Dublin area. Munster TU and Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest have since been approved. Planning is underway for the formation similar merged institutions across the country. Israel Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, ranked 38 in the world in 2010. Italy In Italy, the term "technical institute" generally refers to a secondary school which offers a five-year course granting the access to the university system. In higher education, Politecnico refers to a technical university awarding bachelor, master and PhD degrees in engineering. Historically there were two Politecnici, one in each of the two largest industrial cities of the north: Politecnico di Torino, established 1859; Politecnico di Milano, established 1863. A third Politecnico was added in the south in 1990: Politecnico di Bari, established 1990. However, many other universities have a faculty of engineering. In 2003, the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Italy) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Italy) jointly established the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology), headquartered in Genoa with 10 laboratories around Italy, which however focuses on research, not entirely in the fields of engineering and does not offer undergraduate degrees. Jamaica University of Technology, Jamaica, in Kingston, Jamaica Japan In Japan, an is a type of university that specializes in the sciences. See also the Imperial College of Engineering, which was the forerunner of the University of Tokyo's engineering faculty. National Tokyo Institute of Technology, 1929 Kyoto Institute of Technology, 1949 Muroran Institute of Technology, 1949 Nagoya Institute of Technology, 1949 Kyushu Institute of Technology, 1949 University of Electro-Communications, 1949 Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 1949 Kitami Institute of Technology, 1966 Nagaoka University of Technology, 1976 Japan Advanced Institute of Science And Technology, 1986 Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 2006 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, 2011 Public Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology, 1986 Maebashi Institute of Technology, 1997 Kochi University of Technology, 1997 Advanced Institute of Industrial