The University of Łódź (
Polish: Uniwersytet Łódzki,
Latin: Universitas Lodziensis) is a public
research university founded in 1945[6] in
Łódź,
Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź in the
interwar period — the Teacher Training Institute (1921–1928), the Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (1924–1928) and the local division of the
Free Polish University of Warsaw (1928–1939).
The University of Łódź is a fully accredited, state-owned, traditional university. It is one of 18 institutions of its type in Poland.[7]
It has more than 25,000 students[1] and 2,600 teachers. Its international cooperation includes 385 partner institutions from all over the world.[8] A range of
BA,
MA, and postgraduate courses held in English as a language of instruction are offered to Polish and overseas students.[9]
The university strives to maintain its high academics standards, the most recent testimonies of which include:
3rd place among Polish universities for the quality of instruction in
Economic Sciences, as shown in the 2011 ranking by the Gazeta Bankowa (a respected Polish finance & banking newspaper)[12]
4th place among Polish higher education institutions of international prestige, as concluded from the outcomes of
QS and
Webometrics rankings of 2010[14]
Library
The library of the University of Łódź is one of the biggest and most modern academic libraries in
Central Europe.
Its total collection amounts to 3 million volumes. The main part of the book collection is in library store-rooms. The remaining books and journals are placed in the reference sections: the Main Reading Room and Study Rooms. Registered users can use
self checkout machines for lending and returning books in some collections.[15] Apart from the Main University Library there are 106 branch libraries and their collections are adjusted to the scientific and didactic activities of the institutions. The number of registered library card holders is now over 20,000.[16]
The university was created after the total destruction of
Warsaw, during and after the
Warsaw Uprising, and after the expulsion of Poles from
Lviv. One of its leading founders was Professor Teodor Vieweger of the
Free Polish University. During the first year of operation (1945-1946 academic year), the University of Łódź admitted over 7 thousand students and it was divided into 6 Faculties (including the schools of pharmacy, medicine and odontology that formed a separate institution in 1950[24]), which were later divided into the present 12 Faculties. In 1998, a branch campus of the University of Łódź was created in
Tomaszów Mazowiecki.[25]