The Technological Institute of Costa Rica (TEC) is a national autonomous institution of higher education, dedicated to teaching, research, and the extension of technology and other related sciences for the development of Costa Rica. Founded on June 10th, 1971, it started under the official name of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR).
From 2010 on, at the communicational level, a change in the image was made and it was renamed Technological of Costa Rica (TEC), as a promotional name.
Its Central Campus is located in the city of Cartago. It has a headquarters in Santa Clara de San Carlos (Alajuela), 2 venues in the capital San José: the Academic Center, in Barrio Amón, and the Technology Transfer Center in Zapote.
In addition to the Center for Technology Transfer and Continuous Education, it also uses the Alajuela Interuniversity Headquarters. In 2014, the Academic Center of Limón opens and, in 2015, the Academic Center of Alajuela is created.
Origin
During the office term of President José Figueres Ferrer, with the assistance of the President of the Legislative Assembly, Daniel Oduber Quirós and the Cartago population, supported the creation of a new institution of higher education.
This university institution belongs to the State system that was founded on June 10th, 1971, under Law 4777 that gave rise to the creation of the Technological of Costa Rica. The first rector of the Tecnológico de Costa Rica was Vidal Quirós Berrocal, a 33-year-old civil engineer with training in business administration at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico).
5 years after its creation, in 1975, the ITCR graduated the first group of engineers in different areas who soon expressed their need to have the support of a professional college to freely carry out their work. This important aspect was not contemplated in the Organic Law of the ITCR, so the need to modify it was raised. It took 8 years for the reform to become a reality, through Law No. 6321, of April 27th, 1979.
The following instances stand out in its organizational structure
Institutional Assembly: The highest authority of the TEC
Institutional Council: The senior governing body of the TEC
Rector: The rector is the highest executive officer of the TEC
Vice-rectors: To comply with its specific policies, the TEC has 4 vice-rectories.
The Tecnológico de Costa Rica was initially installed in the Pirie Building (now Casa de la Ciudad), which was donated by the Municipality of Cartago. The first students came mainly from vocational-technical colleges, with the argument of the career approach that was aimed at the productive sector and its duration that consisted of 3-year term.
The first laboratories, in the case of Construction Engineering, were carried out at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), and those of the mechanical area, at the “Colegio Monseñor Sanabria”. The Business Administration career emerged as a need to increase the number of students since at this period the financing of higher education began to be discussed.
TEC library
The ‘José Figueres Ferrer’ library of the TEC aims to provide, by this means, wide availability of resources and information services for the dissemination of knowledge and, thus, contribute to the development of academic communities and the country in general.
Its mission is to provide updated and specialized information services in the field of science, technology, and culture to the institutional, national and international community in an agile, timely, accessible, equitable, and qualitative way, contributing to the generation of knowledge and strengthening the economic, social, cultural, and productive development of our country.
Among the services it offers, there are:
•Information literacy
•Scholarship book
•New acquisitions
•Interlibrary loan
•Loan, reservation, renewal, and return of documentary material
•Face reference
•Conference room
•Room for researchers
•SIBITEC Catalog
•Rooms form
