Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) or Bandung Insitute of Technology or Institute of Technology Bandung, was founded on March 2, 1959. The present ITB main campus is the site of earlier engineering schools in Indonesia. Although these higher learning institutions had their characteristics and missions, they influenced developments leading to the establishment of ITB.
In 1920, Technische Hogeschool (TH) was established in Bandung, which for a short time, in the middle forties, became Kogyo Daigaku. Not long after the Republic of Indonesia's birth in 1945, the campus housed the Technical Faculty (including a Fine Arts Department) of Universitas Indonesia, with the head office in Jakarta. In the early fifties, a. Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, also part of Universitas Indonesia, was established on the campus.
In 1959, the Indonesian government founded the present Institut Teknologi Bandung as an institution of higher learning of science, technology, and fine arts, with a mission of education, research, and service to the community.
Government Decree No. 155/2000 about The Decision on ITB as Legal Enterprise (Badan Hukum) has opened a new path for ITB to become autonomous. The status of autonomy implies a freedom for the institution to manage its business effectively and efficiently and be fully responsible for the planning and implementing all programs and activities and the quality control for the attainment of its institutional objective. The institution also has the freedom to decide its measures and take calculated risks in facing tight competition and intense pressures.
With a population of approximately one and a half million, Bandung lies in the mountainous area of West Java, at an altitude of 770 meters. To the north of the town center and its other campuses, the ITB main campus covers a total area of 770,000 square meters.
ITB is an outstanding, distinguished, independent, and internationally recognized university that leads changes toward the Indonesian nation and the world's welfare improvement. To innovate, share, and apply science, technology, art, and humanity and produce excellent human resources for better Indonesia and the world.
