KRAKOW UNIVERSITY

Krakow University has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the UNIVERSITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

	FOUNDATION
Year	1364 A.D.
City	Krakow
Founder	king Casimir III 'said the Great'
Where	Regna Poland
Originary subjects	astronomy , law, mathematics

---

	NOWADAYS
State	Poland
Name	Jagiellonian University of Krakow (Uniwersytet Jagielloński v Krakow)
Seates	Krakow
Degree programs	Medicine , any disciplines of Natural and Social sciences
Library	Jagiellonian Library System , JU MC Medical Library , Jagiellonian Digital Library
Collegium	Royal Jagiellonian College (Collegium Regium) , Greater College (Collegium Maius) , Collegium Medicum
Alumni	NAWA
Famous teachers	Stanisław of Skarbimierz , Paweł Włodkowic , Marcin Król of Żurawica , Jan of Głogów , Wojciech of Brudzewo , Maciej of Miechów , Ivo Andrić , Czesław Miłosz , Olga Tokarczuk , Adam Vetulani , Andrzej Gawroński , Marian Smoluchowski , Albert Wojciech Adamkiewicz
Famous scholars	Marcin Król of Żurawica , Jan of Głogów , Wojciech of Brudzewo , Maciej of Miechów , Nicolaus Copernicus , Jan Długosz, Mikołaj Rej , Jan Kochanowski , Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski , Stanisław Hozjusz , Marcin Kromer , Jan Brożek , king John Sobieski , Jan Śniadecki , Wisława Szymborska, Karol Olszewski, Pope John Paul II , Andrzej Duda , Stanisław Lem, Bronisław Malinowski, Wacław Sierpiński , Carl Menger
Awards	HR Excellence in Research Award in 2017 A.D.

Kraków University is the oldest higher education institution in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe: it was founded in 1364 A.D. by king Casimir III 'said the great' as Studium Generale and comprised the faculties of liberal arts, medicine and law. Only the former 2 were active during the founder's life while after his dead, the atheneum ceased to exist to be restored at the end of the century by the King Vladislaus Jagiełło. His wife Queen Jadwiga died in 1399 A.D. and contributed to the restoration by leaving a considerable portion of her private estate to the Kraków University: so its structure was completed with the formal establishment of the new Faculty of Theology. The oldest main college was initially called the Royal Jagiellonian College (Collegium Regium) or the Greater College (Collegium Maius) and since then the Kraków University, located in the then new capital of the Krown Lithuania-Poland, never interrupted its educational and scholarly activity: not only it constituted a symbol of continuity of the Polish state, but also placed Kraków among the most important educational centres in Europe.

During the 15th century Kraków University flourished and attracted students from all Europe as Ruthenians, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Germans, Dutch, Czechs, Swiss, English, Spanish, Italians, French and even Tartars. It was known for providing education in the fields of law, mathematics and astronomy and for some professors of that age like the two brilliant lawyers Stanisław of Skarbimierz and Paweł Włodkowic (Paulus Vladimiri), as well as the great mathematicians, astronomers and geographers Marcin Król of Żurawica, Jan of Głogów, Wojciech of Brudzewo or Maciej of Miechów, while the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus enrolled as a student in 1491 A.D.. But the second half of XVI century brought crisis caused by the Reformation and religious division of Europe combined with the creation of many new universities (in Vilnius and Zamość as well as the Jesuit schools) led to a decrease in the influx of foreign students. In Poland admission to important offices was restricted to nobility without a higher education prerequisite, which caused the University to acquire a bourgeois character. In spite of that, later Polish statesmen, bishops and writers, such as Mikołaj Rej, Jan Kochanowski, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Stanisław Hozjusz and Marcin Kromer studied in this period at the Kraków University, since then became known as Kraków Academy.

The 17th century was dominated by the struggle between the Academy and the Jesuits, who desired to seize control of education in Kraków as wherever in Europe: during that time, the Academy also created a highly developed school system dependent on it (known as the 'academic colonies'). Among the scholars of that century, one particularly worth mentioning is the mathematician Jan Brożek companion of the notable student John Sobieski (later king of Poland and winner of the Relief of Wien) graduated from the Academy in that period. The establishment of the Commission for National Education in 1773 A.D. ushered in a new epoch in the history of the Kraków University: that has been the first state body the chief aim of which was the reconstruction of the educational system in Poland. under the rule of Hugo Kołłątaj appointed as the reform's executor. He restructured the Academy in years following and replaced the original faculties with 2 new colleges: the Collegium Morale (theology, law and literature) and the Collegium Physicum (mathematics, physics and medicine), introducing lectures in Polish (with the exception of theology), brought in distinguished scholars (including mathematician/astronomer Jan Śniadecki), furthered the development of natural and exact sciences, and initiating the construction of the astronomical observatory, the botanical garden and the university clinic.

In the following years, the historic circumstances caused Kraków University to change its name in late XIX century A.D., when the Austrian Empire granted the Poles in Galicia an actual autonomy. Polish was reinstated as the language of tuition and a new main college was erected (Collegium Novum) in 1887 A.D., so happened a rapid development in both sciences and humanities and several scholars distinguished themselves in diverse academic fields: Józef Szujski and Michał Bobrzyński created the Kraków school of history specialized in historiography, Stanisław Tarnowski in history of literature, Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in linguistics, Karol Olszewski in chemistry, Zygmunt Wróblewski and Marian Smoluchowski in physics. Students came from the Polish lands of all three partitions created in 1795 A.D. and were of different nationalities: Poles, Ruthenians, Russians, Czechs, Moravians and other Slavs as well as Jews and Germans, approximately 1,000 new students a year. Among them were Bronisław Malinowski, later anthropologist and author of international renown, and Ivo Andrić, later Nobel Laureate in Literature.

When Poland regained its independence in 1918 A.D., the development of the Jagiellonian University continued: over 4 thousand young men and women attended the atheneum and its importance in that time is evidenced by the names of brilliant philologists (Ignacy Chrzanowski, Kazimierz Nitsch, Tadeusz Sinko), historians (Roman Grodecki, Władysław Konopczyński), archaeologists (Tadeusz Sulimirski), lawyers (Rafał Taubenschlag, Fryderyk Zoll), mathematicians (Stanisław Zaremba, Tadeusz Banachiewicz, Kazimierz Żorawski), chemists (Leon Sternbach Jr., Leon Marchlewski) among others. A new Faculty of Agriculture was established in 1923 A.D. and the Jagiellonian Library erected in 1939 A.D. but during the Second World War the Nazi German authorities deceived nearly 180 scholars and staff members of the Jagiellonian University into gathering in Collegium Novum, then brutally arrested and deported them to concentration camps. Another group of scholars were captured as military officers by the Soviets (who invaded Poland) and executed by the order of Joseph Stalin in Katyn, then the Nazi Germans closed the Kraków University: as a result, clandestine education commenced for approximately 800 students and one of them was Karol Wojtyła, later became Pope John Paul II.

In 1945 A.D. over 5,000 students enrolled to Kraków University: among them was Wisława Szymborska, later poet and Nobel Laureate. It became a safe haven for scholars who had been forced to leave Lviv and Vilnius due to the change of eastern Polish borders as well as those who could not return to Warsaw because of its destruction by Nazi Germans. In the new communist political reality the Kraków University's structure was subject to many changes: theological, agricultural and medical faculties were removed then the Jagiellonian University began the era of Stalinism and Communist officials prevented some of the well-known scholars from conducting their research, including the philosopher Roman Ingarden, historian Władysław Konopczyński and economist Adam Krzyżanowski. In following decades, political turbulence impacted the history of the Akademy and the students demonstrated against the regime startin from the 1968 A.D. revolt. Regardless of this, the Jagiellonian University remained an institution where distinguished scholars continued their work in the academic fields of Polish studies (Juliusz Kleiner, Stanisław Pigoń, Kazimierz Wyka), history (Jan Dąbrowski, Henryk Wereszycki), botany (Henryk Niewodniczański), psychology (Stefan Szuman), legal history (Adam Vetulani), law (Ludwik Ehrlich), linguistics (Jerzy Kuryłowicz), astronomy (Kazimierz Kordylewski), molecular biology (Jan Zurzycki), and mathematics (Tadeusz Ważewski, Franciszek Leja, Stanisław Gołąb, Jacek Szarski).

Currently Kraków University comprises 16 faculties, including 3 medical ones, which were reincorporated into the University in 1993 A.D. and now form the Jagellonian University Medical College. The construction of the Campus at the 600th Anniversary of the Jagiellonian University Revival has been completed and almost 40,000 students attend the university each year, 65% of whom are women. Aside from students from the European Union, the University is also attended by visitors from Africa and Asia as well as Eastern European states formed after the fall of Soviet Union (especially Ukraine and Belarus). The University offers 270 programmes of study, some of which are taught in English.

To fulfil its role at a local, national, and international level, an institution such as the Jagiellonian University requires an adequate infrastructure. Hence, a number of large scale construction projects have been carried out recently, such as completing the expansion of the new campus and the resultant relocation of a number of faculties and institutes to their new, modern buildings; the construction of the Nature Education Centre, of the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, of the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS, as well as a new, state-of-the-art Jagellonian University Hospital Complex; the restoration and expansion of Collegium Paderevianum for the Faculty of Philology and the thorough renovation of Collegium Novum and the streets of the ‘University quarter’. The University infrastructure is constantly improved with the aim of creating an ever better environment for scholarly research, teaching and learning. In accordance with the goals adopted in the Jagiellonian University Strategy 2030, it fulfils its mission as a sustainable research university and a leading scientific centre, offering excellent education integrated with science and environment, attractive to students and researchers from Europe and the World. Its key goals also include creating a high quality work and education environment following the principle of accessibility for all as well as effective management, prioritising environmentally-friendly solutions.

At the beginning of 2024 A.D. the Jagiellonian University joined the EURAXESS Poland Network, thus becoming a EURAXESS Centre. As such, the aim of the atheneum is to provide international researchers and their families with information and assistance they might need while relocating to Poland and beginning their cooperation with JU. Furthermore JU is part of other international universitaries groups such as the Coimbra Group, the Europeam, the Guild, the Uthercht Network, EUA, EUNIS, UNA.Europa, SAR, UniTown, AUCSO, the Baltic university programmes, COARA and many others.

Erasmus+ programme was created in 1987 A.D. as a student exchange programme. Although its outreach and objectives widened in the following years, the main idea remains the same: expanding the international cooperation between the universities. The name of the programme refers to the name of a Dutch philosopher, theologian and humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam who like other renaissance representatives, gained education at many universities in Europe, while his views on education were rooted in the ideas of Humanism. Erasmus+ makes is possible for the students to study or undertake an internship abroad: each Jagiellonian University student, full-time and part-time, regardless of the study cycle and nationality may apply to take part in the programme. Part-time students may apply for tuition fee waivers (after being accepted as a candidate and by submitting the application for tuition fee waiver to the Dean).

The university grounds form part of the Kraków Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the city is present another old school: the Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie founded in 1400 A.D. (ex-Wydziału Teologicznego przy Uniwersytecie Krakowskim) derived from the originary theology faculty of Jagiellonian University. When the theology faculty was expelled from the Kraków university by the Communist authorities in 1954 A.D., it remained under the supervision of the Vatican State, the faculty received the honorific title of 'Pontifical' 20 years later and was established as an Academy of Theology by Pope John Paul II (thanks to a motu proprio document entitled 'Beata Hedvigis' prescribing that the Pontifical Academy be derived from the age-old Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University). In 1988 A.D. Włodzimierz Siedlik formed the Psalmodia Choir at the Liturgy Institute, and this was officially recognised as the choir of the ancient Academy of Krakow: 20 years later, by virtue of the decision of Pope Benedict XVI, the Academy became the Pontifical University of John Paul II, with the Faculties of Theology, Phylosophy, History, social sciences, Canon Law kept at the JPII Campus, part of the Erasmus+ Programme.

Homepage

---