Technical University of Lodz

Lodz University of Technology is a well-established higher education institution with an evolved structure. Prospective students have nine faculties to choose from as well as many additional units which enable interdisciplinary studies, provide study support, foreign language instruction, entertainment and sports.

TUL is the fourth best university of technology in Poland according to the 2014 Perspektywy magazine university ranking. 

In 2009, TUL was the first university in Poland to be awarded the prestigious ECTS Label Certificate by the European Commission. In 2013, not only was the University once again recognized with the ECTS Label, this time for the years 2013 - 2016, but was also awarded the Diploma Supplement Label.

More than 2000 students have graduated from programs offered in foreign languages. TUL is the only university in Poland with such a wide range of programs in foreign languages offered at its International Faculty of Engineering. On top of that, selected courses are taught in English at each of TUL's faculties.

Every year, several hundred of our students - the highest number of all technical universities in Poland - go to study at foreign universities - a feat acknowledged by the National Erasmus Agency in Poland, which awarded the University the title of “Mobility Friendly University”.

More than 30 percent of the entire summer student placement exchange is completed within the IAESTE program, which means that TUL receives and sends out the highest number of students to complete their placements abroad. TUL is also one of two Polish universities participating in the Campus Europae student exchange network.

The establishment of the Lodz University of Technology is strictly associated with the history and development of the industrial Lodz. Thanks to incredibly fast development of textile industry in the second half of the 19thcentury Lodz became the second largest city in the area of Poland. This situation required highly qualified employees, namely graduates of higher technical schools. A long battle of establishing a technical university inLodz began. The first actions were taken after the fall of the January Uprising. Appointing a Polytechnic Institute in Lodz was planned. The initiative case was piloted by the General Director of the Government Committee for Public Enlightenment – Witte. The courses were supposed to begin in 1865. Some area within the city was donated to the future university, verdict of the competition for design of the university building was announced, temporary rooms hired and professors recruited. Works on equipping the Institute with teaching aids, machines  and books were in progress. A draft of The Act on the Institute was prepared, the final version of The Act was sent to the Tsar for signature on 13 July 1866. Unfortunately the Tsar did not accept the idea of establishing the Polytechnic Institute.

By the end of the seventies of the 19th century the trials to establish a technical university in Lodz began once again. On 31 January 1876 the Town Council sent a letter to the Piotrkow Governor asking for his support in the cause. The industrialists and merchants of Lodz committed themselves to securing a credit from the bank and donated sites for building of the Institute. Unfortunately also these efforts turned out ineffective.

After regaining freedom by Poland, in 1921 a motion was made to establish a Technical University. Yet the government turned out unfavourable to Lodz, and the idea fell through again.

It was no sooner than after the 2nd World War that the idea was brought into existence. After a few months of efforts by the Lodz authorities a decision was made in the Ministry of Education that “the necessity to establish a technical university in Lodz does not demand further justification”. On 8 May 1945 Professor Bohdan Stefanowski from the Warsaw University of Technology came to Lodz. The following day, assisted by his closest associates he started to work intensely on creating the university.

The city authorities granted temporary premises to the university. The starting point of the university’s own premises were the buildings of former Rosenblatt factory situated nearby the downtown of Lodz. 

The decree that officially brought the Lodz University of Technology into being was signed on 24 May 1945. The university’s first faculties were Mechanical Engineering with Textile Engineering Unit, Electrical Engineering and Chemistry. 525 enrolees were admitted to the first year of studies, 458 students continued their further years of studies. The university had 33 departments with 33 professors, 15 senior lecturers and 53 assistant professors.

The university developed dynamically. The buildings of Rosenblatt factory were quickly adapted. With every year the premises of the university were improving, the number of students and academics was increasing, and the tasks of the university were more and more challenging.

In the farther years next faculties and units of the university were established:

1947  – Faculty of Textile Engineering – currently of Textile Engineering and Marketing,

1950  – Faculty of Food Chemistry – currently of Biotechnology and Food Sciences,

1956  - Faculty of Civil Engineering – currently of Civil Engineering. Architecture and Environmental Engineering,

1970  – Institute of Chemical Engineering with the rights of a faculty – currently the Faculty of Process and     Environmental Engineering,

1970  – Non-faculty Institute of Papermaking and Paper Machines – currently Institute of Papermaking and      Printing,

1969  – Bielsko-Biała branch of TUL,

1976  – Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics – currently of Technical Physics, Computer         Science and Applied Mathematics,

1981  – Faculty of Organisation and Management, 

1991  – Computer Centre,

1992  – Faculty of Textile Engineering and Environmental Protection in Bielsko-Biała branch,

1993  – International Faculty of Engineering,

1994  – Laser Diagnostics and Therapy Centre,

2001  ­- Bielsko-Biała branch is transformed into a separate university,

2010 - Spatial Economy College,

2011 - Logistics College,

2011 - Commodity Science College.

Lodz University of Technology in rankings:

•    The fourth best university of technology in the 2015 ranking of higher education schools of the Perspektywy educational magazine
•    The winner of the competition for “The Most Innovative and Creative University in Poland in Creating Career Prospects” organized by Academic Information Center
•    The winner of the title PROStudent University 2011 awarded by the Parliament of Students of the Republic of Poland
•    The University is one of the 2013 Forbes Diamonds. TUL is the only university among businesses of the region to be included on the prestigious list.  Forbes Diamonds is a ranking of enterprises that most rapidly increase their value.
•    The University is the forerunner in the number of patent applications filed and the number of patents granted according to the Polish Patent Office.

The highly respected University of Lodz is one of the leading institutions of higher education in Poland. It was established in 1945 as a successor of educational institutions active in Lodz in earlier times. The 12 faculties of the University provide programmes in 76 fields of study and 160 specializations. In addition, the University offers doctoral programmes, more than 60 postgraduate curricula including an MBA programme, and programmes financed by the ESF. About 10,000 students complete their programmes at the University of Lodz every year. Our students, together with those studying in Lodz within exchange programmes, come from about 80 different countries. In this truly international atmosphere everyone can experience the cultural diversity of both the city and the institution.

The 38,000 students that attend classes at different faculties of the University are taught by 2,226 academic teachers, 586 of whom bear the highest academic rank. The interest in studying at the University of Lodz is determined not only by high quality of instruction, but also by modern programmes of study offered in Polish, English, French or Russian, and adapted to the changing demands of the labour market. The University treats international cooperation as a way to foster its development and continue the city’s tradition. Our institution regularly hosts guest speakers, renowned politicians, businessmen and cultural representatives from Poland and abroad. The University is repeatedly ranked among the top higher education institutions in Poland, and it especially excels in such fields of study as management, law, and economics. UL is one of only four Polish Universities which gained a place in the QS World University Rankings.