Founded by Leopold I Habsburg in 1702, the University of Wrocław is one of Central Europe’s oldest collegiate-level higher education institutions.
Although it began as a modest school run by Jesuits, it is now one of the biggest universities in Poland, with its primary focus on scientific research. It has 10 faculties, enabling 44 areas of study – most are taught in Polish, with a select few in English.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education, the Faculty of Social Sciences is one of the best in Poland, while the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics is one of the largest.
Located on the same campus as the former University of Breslau, 70 per cent of the university’s buildings were destroyed by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, but were quickly rebuilt and it was reinstated as a Polish state university, having expelled all Polish students under Nazi rule in 1939.
The university has produced some 9 Nobel Prize winners, including Erwin Schrödinger, Max Born and Fritz Haber.
A recent addition to the University of Wrocław has been the Academic Incubator of Entrepreneurship, a hub to help students start their own businesses with free entrepreneurial advice, conferences, seminars, financial aid with investments and free office space. A collaboration with the Wrocław Technology Park, the technological centre boasts laboratories, office space, a conference centre and modern multimedia equipment. The objective of the Technology Park is to create conditions for the use of scientific and industrial potential of Wrocław and the region, as well as stimulating the advanced technologies industry.
