Kyushu Institute of Technology (九州工業大学 Kyushu Kougyou Daigaku) often abbreviated to KIT and sometimes Kyutech was founded in Tobata with government permission as a private training school for engineers called Meiji Senmon Gakkou (Meiji Vocational School) in 1907, towards the end of the Meiji era.

It later became a Japanese national university in 1949, and has since April 2004 been incorporated (i.e. semi-privatised) under a new law http://www.mext.go.jp/english/news/2003/07/03120301.htm which applies to all national universities. It is a moot point how far this is a genuine educational reform and how far it is simply a cost-cutting exercise by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Monbukagakusho, or Monkasho). A chronology is provided in English here http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/english/about_kit/chronology.html .

KIT has three campuses. Two of these are in Kitakyushu and one is in Iizuka. All three are in Fukuoka prefecture, Kyushu.

1. Tobata campus (Kitakyushu) - Faculty of Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/english/tobata/index.html

2. Iizuka campus - Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Computer Science and Systems Engineering http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/english/iizuka/index.html

3. Wakamatsu campus (Kitakyushu) - Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/english/wakamatsu/index.html

External links

• KIT official home page (English) http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/english/index.html
• Message from the President http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/english/about_kit/president.html (in English)

• KIT official page (Japanese) http://www.kyutech.ac.jp/top/index.asp