Description
Efforts to establish a university date back to 1519,
when the Lubrański Academy was established in
Poznań. It was several subsequent attempts and
several hundred years later that the next opportunity
arose. On the basis of the decision of the Headquarters
of the Chief People’s Council of 30 January 1919,
the organisation of the Polish university in Poznań
was started. The Faculty of Philosophy was established.
It was then that the name of the Piast Academy was
adopted, which was changed to the University of
Poznań in 1920. The inauguration of the academic
year took place on 7 May 1919. The first rector
was Professor Heliodor Święcicki. In 1919-1939,
the University consisted of the following Faculties:
Law and Economics, Humanities, Mathematics and
Natural Sciences, Agriculture and Forestry, and
Medicine. The attempt to open a faculty of theology
failed. Many employees of other universities, both
Polish and foreign, who despite their young age could
be proud of their significant scientific achievements,
took up employment at the University of Poznań. For
this reason, it was humorously called the “juvenile
university”. In the interwar period, historical and
archaeological research, emphasising the Slavic origin
of the western Polish lands, developed particularly
dynamically. After the Nazi army entered Poznań,
the University was closed on 10 September 1939 and
the Germans organised the Reichsuniversität Posen
on its premises. Many employees and students were
arrested, executed or deported from Wielkopolska.
However, the University did not interrupt its work, and
throughout the occupation it functioned as a secret
University of the Western Territories. Classes were held
in many cities within the General Government.
Already in March 1945 the University of Poznań
resumed its activity. After a few years, several faculties
were separated from it, and separate universities were
established on their basis. At present they are named as
follows: the Karol Marcinkowski Poznań University of
Medical Sciences, Poznań University of Life Sciences and
the Eugeniusz Piasecki Poznań University of Physical
Education. In 1955, the University chose its patron - Adam
Mickiewicz. The UAM survived the period of socialist
ideology and after the transformations of 1989 it expanded
its educational offer and the scope of its scientific research.
An important chapter in its history was the construction
of a campus in Morasko, in the northern part of
Poznań, where seven faculties, the Centre of Advanced
Technologies, the NanoBioMedical Centre and the sports
facilities, are currently located on modern premises. Today,
the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań means:
the third university in Poland 5,000 employees,
including 3,000 academic teachers nearly 38,000
students 15 faculties two institutes in Gniezno and
in Piła, and Collegium Polonicum in Słubice.
Professor Zbigniew Pilarczyk
Obverse
The obverse shows a fragment of the University Hall in Poznań.
Reverse
On the reverse of the coin there
is a portrait of Heliodor Święcicki, the first rector
of the University of Poznań.
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