Krakow's University of Science and Technology celebrates its centenary
The AGH University of Science and Technology, based in the southern Polish city of Krakow, marked the 100th anniversary of its establishment on Saturday.
President Andrzej Duda, who has extended his patronage over the jubilee, took part in the inauguration of AGH's 101st academic year at the city's prominent ICE Krakow Congress Centre. The ceremony was attended by Deputy PM and Science Minister Jaroslaw Gowin.
The president presented state decorations to several university employees. In his speech he said that the Krakow University of Science and Technology has been supporting the Polish state for a hundred years.
The university was originally to be established within the Austro-Hungarian Empire but after its fall, AGH was inaugurated at the nearby Jagiellonian University by Poland's interwar leader Marshal Jozef Pilsudski as Akademia Gornicza (the Mining Academy), he added.
"At the time, Poland was fighting for Silesia to be within its borders," Duda said. "The Mining Academy was an extremely important element in the implementation of this great vision of a revived, new, strong Polish Republic, which arose from the ashes after 123 years and wanted to quickly become independent, rich, successful and modern in every respect," he added.
The president also said that the Mining Academy was one of the first higher learning institutions shut down during the WWII German occupation of Poland, and the one which, after the war, helped many other technical colleges, including the Warsaw and Gdansk universities of technology, with their academic staff.
Duda also recalled the Polish communist government's December 1981 imposition of martial law in the country and the occupation protest at the university against the outlawing of the legendary Solidarity Union, which ultimately overthrew Poland's post-war-imposed communist regime.
"AGH showed its true face of a patriotic, Polish university serving the country," he said.
Saturday's jubilee agenda also included a march of academics around Krakow's Market Square and speeches by the rectors of the AGH and the Jagiellonian University, Poland's oldest university.
The 100th anniversary events will continue until June 2020 and will include students' projects, exhibitions and competitions.
On October 20, 1919, Pilsudski opened the university which was then called Akademia Gornicza (Mining Academy). At that time, it had 80 students and a dozen or so teachers. Today, AGH has 30,000 students and 4,200 employees, including 2,000 academic teachers.
The Polish Press Agency is providing media coverage of the event. (PAP)
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