AGH University of Krakow

Poland’s AGH University of Science and Technology (AGH UST) has a remarkable history of overcoming hardship.

In 1912, a coalition of miners first had the vision for the university, which was to be a training ground for the country’s mining engineers. The plan was approved by the Emperor Francis Joseph in 1913, but was almost immediately overturned by the outbreak of the First World War. It wasn’t until 1919 that the university finally opened its doors as the Mining Academy.

The Second World War brought tragedy to the university when the occupying Nazi forces targeted Polish intellectuals. Almost all of the Mining Academy’s staff were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. At the end of the war, survivors reopened the plundered university, the first technical university in Poland to do so. The staff then supported other technical universities around the country to resume teaching, displaying remarkable solidarity.

In 1947 the faculties decided to rename the university, calling it the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy – in Polish, Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza or AGH.

Today, AGH UST has some 17 faculties, most specialising in different disciplines of science and engineering. Several of these specialisations are unique among Polish universities.

A 2016 report by the European Patent Office found that AGH UST’s research had resulted in the second highest number of patent applications in Poland.

AGH UST has the largest campus in Poland. Teaching, sport, recreation and accommodation facilities are all located in the same area, at walking distance from Krakow’s famous central square. Krakow is Poland’s second largest city, and is known as a cultural and academic hub.