University of Warsaw

The University of Warsaw is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland, and the largest institution of higher learning in the country. It was established on 19 November 1816, when Alexander I permitted the Polish authorities of the semi-autonomous Congress Poland to create a university with five departments: Law and Administration, Medicine, Philosophy, Theology, and Art and Humanities. It was closed after the November Uprising of 1830 and again after the January Uprising of 1863, and was re-created in 1915 under German occupation with the Polish language reintroduced. After Poland regained independence in 1918 it grew quickly, with elected rectors, senate and deans, and by the early 1930s it had over 250 lecturers and 10,000 students. Today it offers 37 fields of study in more than 18 faculties, among them sociology, philosophy and law, and its alumni include Frédéric Chopin, Alfred Tarski and Florian Znaniecki.