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Jagiellonian University

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The University of Krakow (today called the Jagiellonian University - Uniwersytet Jagielloński) is a university in Krakow, Poland.

It was founded in 1364 by Casimir III of Poland as Akademia Krakowska.

History

Its development was stalled by death of the king, and later the university was re-established (1400) by Wladyslaw Jagiello grand duke of Lithuania and king of Poland and his wife, Jadwiga, queen of Poland. She donated all of her personal jewelry to the university. In the 19th century the university was named Jagiellonian to commemorate this dynasty of Polish kings.

Throughout the history of the University, thousands of students from all over Poland, from Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bohemia, Germany and Spain have studied there. In the second half of the 15th century, over 40% of university students came from the countries other than the Kingdom of Poland. For several centuries, virtually entire intellectual elite of Poland was educated at the University.

The first chancellor of the university was Peter Wysz and the first professors were Czechs, Germans and Poles, many of them trained at the University of Prague in Bohemia. The university and the chancellors were partisans of the Council of Basel.

Of the student attending about one third were Poles.

Alumni

Johannes Longinus (Jan Długosz) and Copernicus attended the University of Krakow.

Haller established a printing press in Krakow before 1500. By 1520 Greek philology was introduced by Constanzo Claretti, Wenzel von Hirschberg and Libanus; Hebrew was also taught.

In modern times its students were pope John Paul II (Polish language and literature) and Wislawa Szymborska (sociology).

Other famous historical figures connected with the University:

Enrollment

With 36,263 (2002) students and 3174 scientists is one of the leading universities in Poland.

Library

The university library is one of the largest in the country, with almost 5,5 million volumes. It has a large collection of medieval manuscripts [1], for example Copernicus' De Revolutionibus or Balthasar Behem's Codex.

It also gathered the underground literature (so called drugi obieg) from the period of communist rule (1945-1989).

Organisation

The university is divided in 13 faculties:

  • Law and Administration
  • Medicine
  • Pharmacy and Medical Analysis
  • Health Care
  • Philosophy
  • History ([2])
  • Philology
  • Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science
  • Mathematics and Computer Science
  • Chemistry
  • Biology and Earth Sciences
  • Management and Social Communication
  • International and Political Studies
  • Biotechnology

Since 2000 the university is building the new complex of university buildings, so called the 3rd Campus.



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