New academic year here

The academic year in Krakow began in the first week of October, after three long months of holiday. Roughly 180,000 students returned to the city to complete their higher education at one of the oldest universities in Central Europe. King Kazimierz III, also known as “The Great,” established Jagiellonian University in 1364. It is the second oldest university, right after Prague Charles University, which was founded in 1348.The Jagiellonian University (UJ) is still the largest academy in Krakow with 45,000 students. It offers the richest variety of studies ranging from classical humanities, such as philosophy and history, to mathematics and medicine.

The University of Science and Technology (AGH) is the alma mater for 30,000 Krakow students and is the second largest technical university in Poland. Traditionally, the university provided Polish steel, mining and machine industry, but recently its computer science has gained prominence.

Programmers from the AGH are among the most wanted employees in the job market today.Krakow University of Technology (PK), enrolls almost 20,000 students, and is known for its architecture and civil engineering facilities, and is a prominent source of employees for Polish building industries. In Krakow, there are two other universities with approximately 20,000 students: the University of Economics (UE), which specializes in banking and managing, and the Pedagogical University (AP), which educates potential teachers. Three other major public universities are: the Academy of Physical Education (AWF), the Agricultural University (AR), and the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP). There are also several private academies here.

Collectively, there are 21 institutions of higher education in the city. The number of people studying in Krakow (180,000) is significant when compared to the number of permanent residents (756,000). These numbers indicate that one in ten Polish students studies in Krakow.