University of Warsaw Totally Explained

Everything about University Of Warsaw totally explained

University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland, ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement as the second best Polish university among the world top 500 in 2006.

History

1816-31

The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816, when the partitions of Poland separated Warsaw from the oldest and most influential Polish academic center, in Kraków. The first to be established in Congress Poland were the Law School and the Medical School. In 1816 Tsar Alexander I permitted the Polish authorities to create a university, comprising five departments: Law and Administration, Medicine, Philosophy, Theology, and Art and Humanities. The university soon grew to 800 students and 50 professors.
After most of the students and professors took part in the November 1830 Uprising the university was closed down.

1857-69

After the Crimean War, Russia entered a brief period of liberalization, the "Post-Sevastopol Thaw." Permission was given to create a Polish medical and surgical college (Akademia Medyko-Chirurgiczna) in Warsaw. In 1862 departments of Law and Administration, Philology and History, and Mathematics and Physics were opened. The newly-established college gained importance and was soon renamed the "Main School" (Szkoła Główna). However, after the January 1863 Uprising the liberal period ended and all Polish-language schools were closed again. During its short existence, the Main School educated over 3,000 students, many of whom became the backbone of Polish intelligentsia.

1870-1915

The Main School was replaced with a Russian-language "Imperial University of Warsaw". Its purpose was to provide education for the Russian military garrison of Warsaw, the majority of students (up to 70% out of an average of 1 500 to 2 000 students) were Poles. The tsarist authorities believed that the Russian university would become a perfect way to Russify Polish society and spent significant a significant sum on building a new university campus. However, various underground organizations soon started to grow and the students became their leaders in Warsaw. Most notable of these groups (the supporters of Polish revival and the socialists) joined the ranks of the 1905 Revolution. Afterwards a boycott of Russian educational facilities was proclaimed and the number of Polish students dropped to below 10%. Most of the students who wanted to continue their education left for Galicia and Western Europe.

1915-18

During the World War I Warsaw was seized by Germany in 1915. In order to win the Poles for their case and secure the Polish area behind the front lines the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary allowed for a certain liberalization of life in Poland. In accordance with the concept of Mitteleuropa, German military authorities permitted several Polish social and educational societies to be recreated. One of these was Warsaw University. The Polish language was reintroduced, and the professors were allowed to return to work. In order not to let the Polish patriotic movement out of control the number of lecturers was kept low (usually not more than 50), but there were no limits on the number of students. Until 1918 their number rose from a mere 1,000 to over 4,500.

1918-39

After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the University of Warsaw began to grow very quickly. It was reformed; all the important posts (the rector, senate, deans and councils) became democratically elected, and the state spent considerable amounts of money to modernize and equip it. Many professors returned from exile and cooperated in the effort. By the late 1920s the level of education in Warsaw had reached that of western Europe.
By the beginning of the 1930s the University of Warsaw had become the largest university in Poland, with over 250 lecturers and 10,000 students. However, the financial problems of the newly-reborn state didn't allow for free education, and students had to pay a tuition fee for their studies (an average monthly salary for a year). Also, the number of scholarships was very limited, and only approximately 3% of students were able to get one. Despite these economic problems, the University of Warsaw grew rapidly. New departments were opened, and the main campus was expanded.
After the death of Józef Piłsudski the senate of the University of Warsaw changed its name to "Józef Piłsudski University of Warsaw" (Uniwersytet Warszawski im. Józefa Piłsudskiego). A time of troubles began for academics in Poland as the Sanacja government started to limit the autonomy of the universities, and rightist students proceeded to organize anti-Semitic demonstrations and riots. The government was forced to back down in 1937 and the right-wing followers of the nationalist parties were peacefully pacified, but professors and students remained divided for the rest of the 1930s as the system of segregated seating for Jewish students, known as ghetto benches, was implemented.

1939-44

ť For more details on this period see: Underground Education in Poland During World War II

After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the German authorities of the General Gouvernment closed all the institutions of higher education in Poland. The equipment and most of the laboratories were taken to Germany and divided amongst the German universities while the main campus of the University of Warsaw was turned into military barracks.
   German racist theories assumed that no education of Poles was needed and the whole nation was to be turned into uneducated serfs of the German race. Education in Polish was banned and punished with death. However, many professors organized the so-called "Secret University of Warsaw" (Tajny Uniwersytet Warszawski). The lectures were held in small groups in private apartments and the attendants were constantly risking discovery and death. However, the net of underground faculties spread rapidly and by 1944 there were more than 300 lecturers and 3,500 students at various courses.
   Most of the students took part in the Warsaw Uprising as the soldiers of Armia Krajowa and Szare Szeregi. The German-held campus of the University was turned into a well-fortified area with bunkers and machine gun nests. Also, it was located close to the buildings occupied by the German garrison of Warsaw. Heavy fights for the campus started on the first day of the Uprising, but the partisans were not able to break through the fortified gates. Several assaults were bloodily repelled and the campus remained in German hands until the end of the fights.
   During the uprising and the occupation 63 professors were killed, either during fights or as an effect of German policy of extermination of Polish inteligentsia. The University lost 60% of its buildings during the fighting in 1944. Up to 80% of the collections (including priceless works of art and books donated to the University) were either destroyed or transported to Germany, never to return.

1945-56

After World War II it wasn't clear whether the university would be restored or whether Warsaw itself would be rebuilt. However, many professors who had survived the war returned to Poland and began organizing the university from scratch. In December 1945, lectures resumed for almost 4,000 students in the ruins of the campus, and the buildings were gradually rebuilt. Until the late 1940s the university remained relatively independent. However, soon the communist authorities of Poland started to impose controls and the period of Stalinism started. Many professors were arrested by the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (Secret Police), the books were censored and ideological criteria in employment of new lecturers and admission of students were introduced. On the other hand, education in Poland became free of charge and the number of young people to receive the state scholarships reached 60% of all the students.

1956-89

After Władysław Gomułka rose to power in Poland in 1956 a brief period of liberalization ensued, though communist ideology still played a major role in most faculties (especially in such faculties as history, law, economics and political science). International cooperation was resumed and the level of education rose, but the government soon started to suppress freedom of thought, which led to increasing unrest among the students. An anti-Semitic and anti-democratic campaign in 1968 led to an outbreak of student demonstrations in Warsaw, which were brutally crushed by the police and militia groups of ordinary workers. As a result, a large number of students and professors were expelled from the university, while some were drafted into the army. Most professors of Jewish descent were forced to emigrate, while the leaders of the democratic movement, Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski, were sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
Nevertheless, the University remained the centre of free thought and education. What professors couldn't say during lectures, they expressed during informal meetings with their students. Many of them became leaders and members of the Solidarity movement and other societies of the democratic opposition. The scientists working at the University of Warsaw were also among the most prominent printers of books forbidden by censorship.

Campus

The main campus of the University of Warsaw is in downtown Warsaw, in Krakowskie Przedmieście. It comprises several historic palaces, most of which had been nationalized in the 19th century. The chief buildings include:

Kazimierzowski Palace (Pałac Kazimierzowski) - the seat of the rector and the senate;
the Old Library (Stary BUW) - since recent refurbishment, a secondary lecture building;
the Main School (Szkoła Główna) - former seat of the Main School until the January 1863 Uprising, later the faculty of biology; now, since its refurbishment, the seat of the institute of archaeology;
Auditorium Maximum - the main lecture hall, with seats for several hundred students.

There is also the New Library (Nowy BUW) - an impressive new building with spectacular roof gardens as well as several smaller campuses elsewhere in the city, most notably the physical and chemical center in Banacha Street (ulica Banacha), where the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics (MIM) is located.
The University of Warsaw owns a total of 126 buildings. Further construction and a vigorous renovation program are underway at the main campus.

Departments

Applied Linguistics and East-Slavonic Philology ((External Link

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Applied Social Sciences and Resocialization

Biology ((External Link

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Chemistry ((External Link

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Economic Sciences ((External Link

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Education

Geography and Regional Studies ((External Link

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Geology ((External Link

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History

Journalism and Political Science

Law and Administration ((External Link

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Management ((External Link

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Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics ((External Link

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Modern Languages

Oriental Studies ((External Link

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Philosophy and Sociology ((External Link

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Physics ((External Link

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Polish Studies

Psychology (pl: (External Link

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Other institutes

British Studies Centre

Centre de Civilisation Francaise et d'Etudes Francophones aupres de l`Universite de Varsovie

Centre for Archaeological Research at Novae

Centre for Environmental Study

Centre for Europe

Centre for Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities ((External Link

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Centre for Foreign Language Teaching

Centre for Open Multimedia Education

Centre for the Study of Classical Tradition in Poland and East-Central Europe

Centre of Studies in Territorial Self-Government and Local Development

Chaire UNESCO du Developpement Durable de l`Universite de Vaersovie

Comite Polonais de l`Alliance Francais

Erasmus of Rotterdam Chair

University of Warsaw for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education

University College of English Language Teacher Education

University College of French Language Teacher Education

University College of German Language Teacher Education

Heavy Ion Laboratory

Institute of Americas and Europe

Institute of International Relations

Centre for Latin-American Studies (CESLA)

Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (EUROREG) ((External Link

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American Studies Centre

Interdisciplinary Centre for Behavioural Genetics

Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling ((External Link

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Inter-Faculty Institute for Social Studies

Physical Education and Sports Centre

Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology

University Centre for Technology Transfer

Individual Inter-faculty Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences ((External Link

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Inter-faculty Study Programme in Environmental Protection

Institutions

University of Warsaw Libraries ((External Link

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Institute of Scientific Information and Book Studies ((External Link

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The Institute of Polish Language and Culture 'Polonicum' ((External Link

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Notable alumni

Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909-1983), author

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (1921-1944), poet

Menachem Begin (1913-1992), Zionist, prime minister of Israel, Nobel Peace Prize winner

Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951), poet and writer

Kazimierz Brandys (1916-2000), writer

Marian Brandys (1912-1998), writer and journalist

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), pianist and composer

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (b. 1950), politician, former Prime Minister of Poland

Adam Doboszyński (1904-1949), politician and writer

Joseph Epstein (1911-1944), communist leader of French resistance

Bronisław Geremek (b. 1932), historian and politician

Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), writer

Jan T. Gross (b. 1947), historian and writer, Princeton University professor

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (1919-2000), journalist, writer and GULag survivor

Leonid Hurwicz (b. 1917), Nobel Prize in Economics winner

Czesław Janczarski (1911-1971), poet and Russian literature translator

Lech Kaczyński (b. 1949), right-wing politician, former president of Warsaw, current President of Poland

Aleksander Kamiński (1903-1978), writer and one of the leaders of the Polish Scouting

Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007), writer and journalist

Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909), composer

Jan Karski (1914-2000), Polish resistance fighter

Alpha Oumar Konaré, (b. 1946), Malian president

Janusz Korwin-Mikke (b. 1942), right-wing, conservative-liberal politician and journalist

Marek Kotański (1942-2002), psychologist and streetworker

Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), historian, author, social worker and politician

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991), literature historian, politician

Jerzy Łojek (1932-1986), historian and writer

Tadeusz Mazowiecki (b. 1927), author, social worker, journalist, former Prime Minister of Poland

Ludmiła Marjańska (b. 1923), poet and English literature translator

Adam Michnik (b. 1946), journalist

Karol Modzelewski (b. 1937), historian and politician

Jan Olszewski (b. 1930), lawyer and politician, former Prime Minister of Poland

Janusz Onyszkiewicz (b. 1937), politician

Bolesław Piasecki (1915-1979), extreme right-wing politician

Bohdan Paczyński (1940-2007), astronomer

Longin Pastusiak (b.1935), politician

Andrew Paulukiewichz (1958) Microbiologist

Krzysztof Piesiewicz (b. 1945), lawyer and screenwriter

Bolesław Prus (1847-1912), writer

Józef Rotblat (1908-2005), physicist, Nobel Peace Prize winner

Stanisław Sedlaczek (1892-1941), social worker and one of the leaders of Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego

Yitzhak Shamir (b. 1915) Prime Minister of Israel

Dmitry Strelnikoff (b. 1969), Russian writer, biologist and a journalist for television, radio and the press

Alfred Tarski (1902-1982), logician and mathematician

Julian Tuwim (1894-1953), poet and writer

Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (1938-1985), physicist and science-fiction writer

Anna Zawadzka (1919-2004), social worker and one of the leaders of Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego

Maciej Zembaty (b. 1944), poet and writer, famous for his grim humour and translations of Leonard Cohen's works

Janusz Zeyland (1896-1944), medician and pneumonia specialist, one of BCG inventors

Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz (b. 1964), writer

Florian Znaniecki (1882-1958), philosopher and sociologist

Notable professors

Osman Achmatowicz (1899-1988), chemist, rector of the Technical University of Łódź (1946-1953)

Szymon Askenazy, historian

Karol Borsuk (1905-1982), mathematician

Cezaria Anna Baudouin de Courtenay-Ehrenkreutz-Jędrzejewiczowa (1885-1967), ethnologist and anthropologist, one of the founders of Polish modern ethnology

Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929), linguist, inventor of phoneme

Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925), sociologist

Benedykt Dybowski (1833-1930), biologist and explorer of Siberia and Baikal area

Michel Foucault, French philosopher, at the University dean-faculty of the French Centre 1958-1959

Aleksander Gieysztor (1916-1999), historian

Stanisław Grabski (1871-1949), economist

Henryk Greniewski (1903-1972), mathematician, informatician and pioneer of computers in Poland

Henryk Jabłoński (1909-2003), historian, nominal head of state of Poland (1972-1985)

Feliks Pawel Jarocki (1790 - 1865), zoologist

Irena Jurgielewiczowa (1903-2003), writer

Leszek Kołakowski (b. 1927), philosopher

Kazimierz Kuratowski (1896-1980), mathematician

Joachim Lelewel (1786-1861), historian, politician and freedom fighter

Antoni Leśniowski (1867-1940), surgeon and medic, one of the discoverers of Crohn's disease

Edward Lipiński (1888-1986), economist, founder of the Main Statistical Office

Jan Łukasiewicz (1878-1956), mathematician and logician

Kazimierz Michałowski (1901-1981), archaeologist, explorer of Deir el Bahari and Faras

Andrzej Mostowski (1913-1975), mathematician

Maria Ossowska (1896-1974), sociologist

Stanisław Ossowski (1897-1963), sociologist

Juliusz Owidzki (1921-1986), actor and radio speaker

Grigol Peradze (1899-1942), Orthodox theologian

Leon Petrażycki (1867-1931), jurist, philosopher and logician, one of the founders of sociology of law

Wlasyslaw Pilars de Pilar - (*Opatowek 1874- +Chorzow 1952), a literature professor at the Warsaw University, poet and entrepreneur

Adam Podgórecki (1925-1998), sociologist of law

Henryk Samsonowicz (b. 1930), historian, rector (1980-1982)

Wacław Sierpiński (1882-1969), mathematician

Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin (1849-1915), mathematician

Jan Strelau (b. 1931), psychologist

Jerzy Szacki (b. 1929), sociologist and historian

Stanisław Thugutt (1873-1941), politician, rector (1919-1920)

Włodzimierz Zonn (1905-1985), astronomerFurther Information

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