University of Ljubljana

Situated in the urban heart of the Slovenian capital, and established in 1919, the University of Ljubljana (UL) is the oldest and largest higher education institute in the country.

When it began, the university was made up of five faculties. These were law, philosophy, medicine, theology and technology. Today, the research university boasts a total of 23 faculties as well as three art academies covering theatre, radio, film and television, as well as fine arts, design and music. The university has also operated an art gallery since 2012.

Around 43,000 students attend UL, including 2,000 or so international students, with approximately 5,500 teachers, researchers, assistants and administrative support staff. Programmes relating to social sciences and natural sciences, as well as technical study programmes, remain among the university’s most renowned.

As the country’s largest university, UL is home to the National University Library, which holds almost 1.5 million books as well as text, visual and multimedia resources. Its Central Technological Library also holds national status and is an information centre for science and technology.

The International Association for Political Science Students – a non-profit, student-run umbrella group, made up of around 10,000 undergraduate and graduate political science students from around the world – is also based at UL.

Maintaining close ties with Slovenian and international companies is among UL’s current priorities as it seeks to develop its market-oriented activities on an annual basis. Its annual budget stands at around €324.5 million.

Also high on the university’s agenda is a major capital investment programme. UL recently acquired €88 million of EU funding for the construction of new buildings and the redevelopment of facilities. As well as being the largest single project in UL’s history, the redevelopment constitutes the first research and education infrastructural project in Slovenia to obtain such a large amount of granted funds.