Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń or NCU (, UMK) is located in

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

, Poland. It is named after

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...

, who was born in Toruń in 1473.

History

The beginnings of higher education in Toruń

The first institution of higher education in Toruń, the Toruń Academic Gymnasium was founded in 1568. It was one of the first universities in northern Poland. The Academic Gymnasium was the precursor to scientific and cultural life (including the first museum, created in 1594) in the region. Thanks to the efforts of Heinrich Stroband, city mayor in 1594, academics in Toruń received good working conditions for teaching and research. Among his professors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were meritorious scholars of Polish and Prussian history, authors of textbooks and papers from various disciplines of humanities, and associates scientific journals. The establishment of the university in a modern form began in the nineteenth century. During the

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

, the Prussian government planned to create a University of Theology, which was to include faculties of law and economics, but this project did not materialise. In the interwar period the city authorities of Toruń again sought to establish a university. Soon after the annexation of Pomerania to the reborn Poland in 1920, a new phase of efforts to develop the university began. Even before 1920, the Supreme People's Council had considered the proposal to establish higher educational institutions in the Polish territories annexed by Prussia at the University of Gdansk and in Toruń. However, political developments and the uncertain future of Pomerania prompted the council's leadership to accept the December 1918 resolution of the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

to overlook Toruń as a location for a new university and instead go ahead with the development of a university in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

. In 1920, the first declaration requesting the establishment of a university was put forward in November by the National Workers Party whose members chose Toruń-born

to be the patron of the university. For this purpose a number of educational societies, such as the Baltic Institute (later transferred to Gdynia, and then to

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

) amongst others, were established in the town. Finally, in 1938, it was decided to set up the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń as a subsidiary of Poznań's Adam Mickiewicz University; work was to start at the beginning of 1940. This program, however, was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was not until 1947, two years after the creation of the Nicolaus Copernicus University. that Prof. Karol Górski revealed that there had been an approved plan to open Poznań University long-distance division in Toruń in 1940, which was supposed to teach the humanities and theology. In the first years after the war, many of the teaching staff consisted of professors, assistants and administrative workers from the Stefan Batory University in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Faculties

*Faculty of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and Environmental Protection *Faculty of

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

*Faculty of

Earth Sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

*Faculty of Economic Sciences and

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

*Faculty of

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

Sciences *Faculty of

Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...

*Faculty of

Health Sciences The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences: Health sciences – those sciences that focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple a ...

*Faculty of

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

*Faculty of

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

*Faculty of

Languages Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...

*Faculty of

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and

Administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

*Faculty of

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

*Faculty of

Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

*Faculty of

Pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

*Faculty of

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and International Studies *Faculty of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

and

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...

*Faculty of

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

Staff

Number of students

Levels of study offered by institution

*Shorter/intermediate university level qualifications *First main university level final qualifications *Advanced/postgraduate study *Doctorate *Higher/post doctorate

Diplomas and degrees

*Licentiate (3 years undergraduate degree. Equivalent to

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

) *Engineer (3 or 3.5 years technical degree. Equivalent to

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution. In the United Kingdom, a Ba ...

) *Magister (5 years degree equivalent to a course-based Masters programme) *Ph.D. Degree *Habilitated Doctor Degree.

Rankings

In 2018,

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The THES''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

ranked the university within the 801-1000 band globally.THE World University Rankings 2018

International cooperation

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

– Italy * University of Ferrara – Italy *

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

– Italy * University of Oldenburg – Germany *

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

– Germany *

University of Bamberg The University of Bamberg () in Bamberg, Germany, specializes in the humanities, cultural studies, social sciences, economics, and applied computer science. Campus The university is partly housed in historical buildings in Bamberg's Old Town. ...

, – Germany * Universität Rostock – Germany * University of Greifswald – Germany *

Bundeswehr University Munich image:Eingangsbereich der Universität der Bundeswehr München.jpg, Entrance to the university University of the Bundeswehr Munich (, UniBw München) is one of two research universities in Germany at federal level that both were founded in 1973 a ...

– Germany * Université d’Angers – France *

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university located in Nottingham, England. Its origins date back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham School of Design, Nottingham Government School of Design, which still opera ...

– United Kingdom *Dominican University – USA * Cranfield University – United Kingdom

Notable alumni

* Piotr Bojańczyk, (born 1946), former national champion, ice dancing * Iwona Chmielewska (born 1960), author and illustrator * Zbigniew Herbert, (1924–1998), poet * Piotr Hofmański (born 1956), jurist and judge, President of the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...

(ICC) * Elżbieta Jabłońska (born 1970), multidisciplinary visual artist * Maciej Konacki, (born 1972), astronomer * Mariusz Lemańczyk, (born 1958), mathematician * Sławomir Mentzen, (born 1986), politician and tax advisor * Janina Ochojska (born 1955), astronomer, humanitarian and social activist * Andrzej Person, (born 1951), senator and sports journalist * Jan Rompsczi, (1913–1969), poet and ethnographer * Adela Świątek (1945–2019), mathematician and later math faculty * Janusz Leon Wiśniewski (born 1954), scientist and writer * Aleksander Wolszczan, (born 1946), astronomer, discoverer of the first extra-solar planet * Jacek Yerka (born 1952), painter}

References

External links

Official website (english version)

Official website (polish version)

Official Students' Forum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun Universities and colleges in Poland 1945 establishments in Poland Universities and colleges established in 1945

History

The beginnings of higher education in Toruń

Faculties

Staff

Number of students

Levels of study offered by institution

Diplomas and degrees

Rankings

International cooperation

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links