Nicolaus Copernicus University

The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (NCU), founded in 1945, is the biggest university in northern Poland and is outstanding both in terms of its scientific potential as well as the courses of study on offer, forms of education, and numbers of students and graduates. Due to the joining of the Ludwik Rydygier Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz to NCU, which took place on 24 November 2004, the University became a multi-profile higher education institution with even stronger research potential and teaching offers. In the recent press rankings, NCU has been granted the honourable position among the first five best universities in Poland. This is a confirmation of a high standard of the research and education offers.

NCU is comprised of 14 faculties: Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences; Faculty of Chemistry; Faculty of Languages; Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science; Faculty of Humanities; Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science; Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management; Faculty of History; Faculty of Law and Administration; Faculty of Fine Arts; Faculty of Theology and three faculties of Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz: Medical Faculty, Pharmaceutical Faculty and Faculty of Health Education. Twelve faculties have the power to grant doctorate and eleven - to grant post-doctorate degrees. Apart from the faculties, interfaculty and general university units, general university centres and interdisciplinary groups participate in education, scientific-and research and organisational activities.

NCU employs over 4,100 people including 2,030 scholars, 252 of whom hold the professorial title. The rich education offer is effectively explored and used by approximately 40,000 students who are now being educated in 50 fields of studies, 100 specialisations, over 130 courses and post-graduate studies and 16 doctoral studies. In recent years, the NCU has been accepting approximately 10,000 candidates a year, and the number of graduates in the Jubilee year is bound to exceed 100,000. Students find on offer studies of art, conservation, medicine, technical physics and interfaculty studies of humanities, all unique in the country.

The University also offers special studies. More and more fields of studies are being awarded the positive evaluation mark of the State Commission of Accreditation, and the artistic education has received a very rare mark of the outstanding. A wider implementation of the point assessment system accordant to ECTS system (European Credit of Transfer System) enables students to carry out a more individual programme of education as well as to continue studies in other Polish and foreign universities. Students are offered one- or two-semester studies abroad within the European programme SOCRATES/ERASMUS. In addition, Master of Business Administration (MBA) studies are conducted in Toruń thanks to the co-operation of the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management with the Dominican University (USA), and have been granted official recognition by two American accreditation commissions of high standing.

Every year over 60 conferences, symposia, and seminars take place at the NCU drawing together scholars from Poland and abroad and giving Toruń the character of a congress centre. The staff of the NCU realise annually 140 grants of the Ministry of Science and Computer Science Development (former Committee of Scientific Research) and participate in the realisation of research projects.

Depending on the specialisation, research work is carried out at our own facilities and in other centres both in Poland and abroad, for example, on Spitzbergen. In the 1990`s, a 32-metre radio telescope, the third-largest in Europe, was brought into use to conduct observation work at the NCU's Centre for Astronomy in Piwnice near Toruń. Among others, Prof. Aleksander Wolszczan, discoverer of the first planetary system outside our own solar system, carries out research based on its operation. The latest confirmation of high standing of the University is the foundation of the State Laboratory of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (FAMO), which enables our scientists to run research work on the highest world level. The scholars of NCU maintain contacts with numerous universities and research centres in the world. They participate in the realisation of international research projects, one of which is, for instance, The Framework Programme of the European Union. The scholars of NCU visit numerous foreign countries on study and lecture tours, to attend conferences and engage in research work. Every year, approximately 1,300 visits of this kind are made. At the same time, the University hosts many scholars from many countries and other continents. Many staff members of NCU belong to prestigious international research organisations and cultural associations. Rector Magnificus of NCU represents our university in the European Universities Association (EUA).

The grounds of the University are widely spread. The University buildings are located on the University campus in Bielany and outside Toruń. After the joining of the Ludwik Rydygier Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz, the infrastructure has been enlarged with all the buildings of the Academy, including the University Hospital of Dr A. Jurasz in Bydgoszcz. In recent years, the University has been enriched with an old and precious building of Collegium Maximum at Plac Rapackiego. As the first university in the country, NCU has applied cordless Internet access area (in EduRoam system), embracing almost all of the University campus in Bielany. Students of NCU have at their disposal numerous excellent and well-equipped lecture and seminar halls and modern laboratories. The University offers accommodation in 11 student dormitories in Toruń (rooms are equipped in telephones and the Internet link) and in 2 dormitories in Bydgoszcz.

Some of the university units remain open and available to the members of the public. These are NCU's British Library and the Centre of the Polish Committee for co-operation with the Alliance Française, run at the University. The Regional Centre of Informatics Education enables students to receive the European Certificate of Computer Skills (ECDL), and within Regional Academy CISCO - to receive European certificates which entitle to design and administer computer networks. Talented young people from all over the country have a chance to learn and study in University Affiliated High School. Great interest of the city dwellers in the events of the Festival of Science and Art proves how important for the region are science and education.

One of the most important events in the life of the University was the visit of the Pope, John Paul II on 7 June 1999. On that day and in NCU Hall, he met the Rectors of all Polish institutions of higher education and other representatives of the Polish world of science. Honouring this event, the NCU Senate granted the Pope the title of Doctor of Honoris Causa of the NCU on 23 November 2004.

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