The Umeå Institute of Technology or Tekniska högskolan i Umeå is part of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Umeå University. The Institute offers a wide range of study programmes, some of them not to be found in any other part of Sweden. Research in engineering is gradually being expanded. The faculty's traditionally strong position in natural sciences form a base on which new technology research is built. Umeå Institute of Technology three main areas in research are Information and Interaction Technologies, Life Sciences, and Sustainable Society. The 1964/65 academic year saw the beginning of what was to become the current Faculty of Sciences and Technology with the creation of a Faculty of Philosophy, which was later divided into a Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science and a Faculty of Social Science in 1968/69. There was already talk in 1964 of establishing a technical college in Umeå. Nothing definite came out of these discussions until 1 July 1997 when the Umeå Institute of Technology was established. Engineering programmes were gradually developed at the university during the 1980s in the form of two engineering programmes.