According to Aime Ruus, Director of the Tartu College and Associate Professor of the Chair of Building Materials and Physics, college was established due to the shortage of technically qualified professionals in South Estonia. Thus, Tallinn University of Technology came up with the idea to create a high-quality engineering education center to Tartu with the goal to be closer to potential students. As a result, the Institute of Sustainable Technology, now Tartu College, was established in 2005. Contrary to its name, the aim of the college has not changed over time - goal is to be the center for high-quality engineering education and research in the region. College is not only an educational institution, but also an important partner for local businesses and society overall.

The Institute opened its doors with 15 students. Today, with more than 350 students, it is a major player in engineering education - one out of three graduates of the field of building design and construction management from TalTech is educated in Tartu. In addition to civil engineers, Tartu also teaches specialists in intelligent systems and applied information technology (with a major in cyber-physical systems) and industrial ecology at master's level. Industrial ecologists are specialists who apply methods based on the circular economy model to both production and consumption, and there is a growing need for them. Graduates of Tartu College have proven to be successful in the Estonian and international labor markets. Many of them have high management positions or have created innovative start-up companies. A good example is a cyber-physical systems graduate who developed an electric surfboard. This is widely thought of as an inventors curriculum.

"Our college is a good example of how it is possible to create a modern learning environment in historic buildings while preserving cultural heritage. The Tartu College campus is located on Puiestee Street, and one of the buildings has an integrated learning and research environment, the so-called living laboratory, which covers the entire building. It differs from a typical laboratory primarily because it does not create an artificial environment for studying individual processes, but in the everyday learning environment we can monitor processes continuously in a much easier way," Ruus explains the environment created for the university family. 

The Tartu College of Tallinn University of Technology also contributes to the field of urban planning and offers further training for spatial planning specialists. The college has four PhD researchers working on age-friendly urban environments and shrinking cities. Tartu College's contribution to Estonian society is significant, training specialists who are highly sought after in the labor market and contribute to the development of the Estonian economy and society. "The main goal of Tartu College is to provide sustainable and high quality engineering education and research. As one of our alumni said - we are the right university in the right city," says Ruus, summing up the meaning of the college in one sentence.