The document discusses the Estonian Information Technology College, a state-funded institution with 1,045 students and a focus on IT education, including systems analysis, development, and cyber security engineering. It highlights curriculum features, various study modes, and the involvement of industry professionals in teaching. The college fosters a practical learning environment with public diploma defenses, active clubs, and has a notable graduate employment success rate.

1. One Flew Over the Hackers’ Nest...
Kaido Kikkas
associate professor
Estonian Information Technology College
November 24, 2016

2. A facility of applied higher education (“new university”)
Owned by HITSA (IT Foundation for Education)
State-funded places similar to public universities
1045 students, 698 of those state-funded
57 academics, 12 in-house and 45 visiting
20 other staff
At a glance: Estonian IT College

3. The Estonian-language curricula cover the life cycle of an
IT system:
– Systems analysis
– Development
– Administration (maintenance)
In addition, there is the English-language curriculum of
Cyber Security Engineering
Three study modes: day/regular, evening, distance
Studies

4. Small and focused on one area of expertise
Orientation to real-life problems
Majority of visiting lecturers (banks, industry, businesses,
also other universities)
Flat hierarchy and informal communication
Plurality of systems and platforms, a number of different
certification programmes (currently Cisco, Oracle, MS, LPI)
All diploma defense events public with webcast, with online
questions allowed (currently over Skype text chat)
Features

5. All labs at least dual-boot (currently Ubuntu 16.04 +
Windows 10), triple-boot in the Apple lab
Significant share of Linux users among academic staff
Robotics Club and hackerspace
Media Club
Student Bar events
Jokes and pranks, MIT-style (e.g. April 1 press releases)
Hackers’ Nest

6. “I do not know where the ITC graduates are. But I do know
where they are not. It’s the employment agency.”
- Linnar Viik
“Can you really dress like THAT at work?”
- an Ukrainian academic visiting ITC
“ITC has those guys who want to learn and know exactly what
they want – that’s why they get all those great internships and
jobs.”
- Mari, a student of Tallinn University (in a course chat)
Some memorable quotes

7. Estonian version of Brian May @ ITC (2011)

8. Thank you!