JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY

The 'Jagiellonian University' (, often shortened to ''UJ'') is located in Kraków, Poland. It has been ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement as the best Polish university.
Originally founded as ''Akademia Krakowska'' in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, it is the second oldest university in Central Europe after the University of Prague founded 4 years earlier,^[1] and one of the oldest universities in Europe.
For the first 453 years of its history, it was known as the 'Cracow Academy'. It was renamed in 1817 ^[2] to commemorate the Jagiellonian dynasty of Polish-Lithuanian kings, in accordance with the Organic Statute issued by the Organisation Commission of the Free City of Kraków established in 1815.

Contents

History

Alumni

Famous professors

Enrollment

Library

Organization

Note

External links

History

Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the laws and administer the courts and offices in the reunified state. He was also aware that the parish network was growing and its 3,000 schools were short of teachers. His ardent efforts to found an institution of higher learning in Poland were rewarded in 1364, when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the Cracow Academy. Its development was stalled by the death of the king, and later the university was re-established (1400) by King Wladislaus Jagiełło and his wife Jadwiga. The queen donated all of her personal jewelry to the university, allowing it to enrol 203 students. By the end of the century about 18,000 students, many of them foreign, 50% of burgher origin, had passed through its gates. The faculties of astronomy, law and theology attracted eminent scholars: for example, Stanisław of Skalbmierz, Paweł Włodkowic, Jan of Głogów, and Albert Brudzewski, who from 1491 to 1495 was one of Nicolaus Copernicus's teachers.

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 the entire intellectual elite of Poland was educated at the University.
The first chancellor of the university was Piotr Wysz and the first professors were Czechs, Germans and Poles, many of them trained at the Charles University in Prague in Bohemia. The university and the chancellors were partisans of the Council of Basel. Of the students attending about one third were Poles.
Jan Haller established a printing press in Krakow around 1500. By 1520 Greek philology was introduced by Constanzo Claretti, Wenzel von Hirschberg and Libanus; Hebrew was also taught.
The Golden era of the University took place during the Polish Renaissance, between 1500 and 1535, when it was attended by 3215 students in the first decade of the 16th century. As the popularity declined, this record was not surpassed until the late 18th century.
In 1846, after the Kraków Uprising,[3] the city and its university became part of the Austrian Empire. The threat of a closure of the University was dissipated in 1847 by the Austrian Emperor's decree to maintain it. New buildings, like the Collegium Novum opened in 1887, were added.
Nowadays, the administrative offices including those of the Rector and Deans are located at the historic Collegium Novum.

Alumni

Famous historical figures connected with the University:

★ Saint John Cantius (1390-1473), scholastic and theologian

★ Jan Długosz (1415-1480), historian

★ John of Kolno(1435–1484), mythical explorer

★ Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), astronomer, promoter of heliocentrism

★ Francysk Skaryna (1485?-1540?), pioneer of the Belarusian language, the first to print a book in an Eastern Slavic language (1517 in Prague)

★ Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503?-1572), poet, diplomat and political thinker

★ Marcin Kromer (1512-1589), historian, Prince-Bishop of Warmia

★ Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584), poet, one of the pioneers of the Polish language

★ Stanisław Koniecpolski (1590?-1646), military commander and politician, Grand Hetman of the Crown

★ John III Sobieski (1629-1696), military leader and a king of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, won the Battle of Vienna

★ Carl Menger (1840-1921), economist and lawyer, founder of the Austrian School of economics

★ Wacław Sierpiński (1882-1969), mathematician

★ Henryk Sławik (1894-1944), diplomat, designated a Righteous Among the Nations for the rescue of Jews in World War II Hungary

★ Tadeusz Pankiewicz (1908-1993), pharmacist, Righteous Among the Nations who aided Jews in the Kraków Ghetto

★ Józef Cyrankiewicz (1911-1989), communist politician, prime minister of Poland (1947-1970)

★ Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972), psychiatrist

★ Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła, 1920-2005), poet, writer, pope and Catholic bishop of Rome

★ Zbigniew Czajkowski (b. 1921), fencing master, "Father of the Polish School" of fencing

★ Stanisław Lem (1921-2006), writer

★ Wisława Szymborska (b. 1923), poet, Nobel Prize in Literature (1996)

★ Norman Davies (b. 1939), British historian

★ Krzysztof Zanussi (b. 1939), film director

Famous professors

★ Stanisław of Skarbimierz (1360-1431), rector, theologian, lawyer

★ Paweł Włodkowic (1370-1435), lawyer, diplomat and politician, representative of Poland on the Council of Constance

★ Albert Brudzewski (1445-1497), astronomer and mathematician

★ Maciej Miechowita (1457-1523), historian, chronicler, geographer, medic

★ Jan Brożek (1585-1652), mathematician, physician and astronomer

★ Walery Jaworski (1849–1924), gastroenterologist

★ Tadeusz Sulimirski (1898-1983), historian and archaeologist, experts on the ancient Sarmatians

Enrollment

With 42,325 (2005) students and 3605 scientists it is one of the leading universities in Poland. The school also enjoys an exclusive exchange program with The Catholic University of America and its Columbus School of Law.[4] Through this program there are a signigicant amount of students from the United States that study at the university.

Library

The university's Jagiellonian Library (''Biblioteka Jagiellońska'') is one of the largest in the country, with almost 5.5 million volumes. It has a large collection of medieval manuscripts [5], for example Copernicus' ''De Revolutionibus'' or Balthasar Behem Codex.
It also gathered the underground literature (so called ''drugi obieg'' or samizdat) from the period of communist rule (1945-1989).

Organization

The university is divided in 15 faculties:

★ Law and Administration

★ Medicine

★ Pharmacy and Medical Analysis

★ Health Care

★ Philosophy

★ History

★ Philology

★ Polish Language and Literature

★ 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 a new complex of university buildings, the so-called Third Campus.

Note

1. The Jagiellonian University at York University homepage [1]
2. Jagiellonian University (homepage), "Calendar" [2]

External links

★ Official Homepage