The University of Bialystok was established in 1997 as a result of the transformation of the Warsaw University Branch, which had existed for 29 years. The level and academic potential have made UwB one of the largest and most dynamic academic units in north-eastern Poland today.
The University has ten faculties, including an expatriate faculty in Siedlce and a foreign faculty in Vilnius. Approximately 900 academic teachers teach and lecture (more than 200 are independent researchers). Currently, the university educates more than 18,000 students in 28 faculties in the full-time and part-time system. It also offers a wide range of postgraduate studies - 90 types.
Doctoral studies are conducted within five UwB units: the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Economics and Management, the Faculty of Philology, the Faculty of History and Sociology and the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry. UwB has 10 rights to confer doctoral degrees and 4 rights to confer postdoctoral degrees. More than 70 scientific societies and student organisations are active at the university.
UwB's scientific achievements include participation in the 5th, 6th and 7th Framework Programmes and the DAPHNE III programme. Through participation in these programmes, it has carried out research projects in physics, chemistry, pedagogy, computer science and mathematics, economics and philology.
In FP6, physicists from UwB led the Combined Study of Nanostructured Magnetic Materials (NANOMAG-LAB) project and are currently participating in FP7 in the Femtosecond Opto-magnetism and Novel Approaches to Ultrafast Magnetism at the Nanoscale (FANTOMAS) project. The Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, in turn, implemented the project Intimate partner violence against elderly women under the DAPHNE III programme.
The University of Bialystok is currently implementing 39 research cooperation agreements with foreign partner universities. It has also participated in the European educational programme Erasmus since 1999. Under this programme, the university cooperates with 104 partner universities from 22 European Union countries, as well as Turkey and Switzerland.
The courses of study are adapted to the needs and possibilities of the region. They also take into account the needs of our compatriots living abroad. The study programme of the University of Bialystok includes the study of the theology of the Catholic and Orthodox Church. They have an important ecumenical dimension and emphasise the specificity of the university.Confirmation of the quality of teaching at UwB is, among other things, the fact that the University Accreditation Commission has awarded a certificate of high quality of education to four faculties: history, economics, chemistry and biology. In turn, the State Accreditation Commission has so far accredited: administration, biology, chemistry, environmental protection, computer science, pedagogy, law, mathematics, philology and Polish philology, sociology, history, physics and economics. Since 2008, the chemistry faculty has boasted the European accreditation ‘Eurobachelor Label’ and ‘Euromaster Label’.
In recognition of great contributions in the fields of science and socio-political life, the University has conferred honorary doctorates on ten prominent figures: Prof. Jerzy Wilkin, Prof. Bruno Holyst, the President of the Republic of Poland in Exile - the late Ryszard Kaczorowski, the founder of the Parisian ‘Culture’ - the late Jerzy Gedroyc, the late Prof. Andrzej Stelmachowski, the late Prof. Andrzej Wyczański, the head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland - Metropolitan Sava, Prof. Marcel Morabito, Archbishop Metropolitan of Bialystok Prof. Edward Ozorowski, Prof. Keiichi Yamanaka.The University of Bialystok is a university that continues to develop, creating better and better conditions for scientific work and study. This is evidenced, among other things, by the following investments: the construction of the University Library, the construction of an auditorium for the Faculty of Law, a sports hall, a computing centre and a teaching building for the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. The largest project in the university's history is the construction of the university campus at Ciołkowskiego Street in Bialystok.
