RECTOR'S FOREWORD

The successive term of office of the Kielce University of Technology governing bodies will last from 2008 to 2012. During the term of office mentioned above, the 45^th anniversary of the founding of the University will be celebrated. It was established in 1965 as Kielce-Radom Evening Higher Engineering School and transformed into the Kielce University of Technology in 1974. The University has even deeper roots. It sees itself as the bearer of the traditions passed down by the first technical higher school in Poland, namely the Mining Academy founded by Stanisław Staszic in 1816 and seated in Cracow Bishops’ Palace in Kielce.

In a broader context, the University is an heir to the Świętokrzyski region technological traditions, an area of high economic potential. The milestones of the region’s development include a prehistoric mine of striped flintstone in Krzemionki Opatowskie, ancient smelting furnaces called Dymarki, Old Polish Industrial Zone and Central Industrial Area. In recent years, metal, machine, construction industries have robustly developed in the region. Tourism, a relatively new branch of industry in the area, has also played an important role in the region’s economy.

The last period of the region’s economic growth has undoubtedly contributed to the development of a technical school of higher education. The sense of regional identity is reflected in the Polish name of the University (Politechnika Świętokrzyska). It forms associations with the region which has remained a bastion of Polish culture and traditions throughout the country’s tumultuous history.

For over forty years of its operation, the University being the only institution of technical higher education in the region, has provided instruction to students making them highly qualified engineering staff employed not only by local enterprises. Many of the University accomplished alumni became owners or executives of production and services companies recognisable in the country and abroad. The successful employment histories of its graduates contribute to the success of the University.

The quality of tuition provided by the University is reflected in a high position it occupies in the Newsweek magazine ranking of academic institutions (in 2008 – it ranked eighth among Polish universities, both state-run and private).

The high ranking of the University results from diversified areas of instruction offered to students. Those comprise 15 fields of study, including four new ones which are of key importance to institutions of technical higher learning: architecture and town planning, automatics and robotics, economics, electronics and telecommunications. In addition to teaching, the University conducts research geared towards collaboration with various sectors of the national economy, and also facilitates the development of the research staff. The University’s successful policy is confirmed by the fact that it is authorised to confer a doctor’s degree of technical sciences in six disciplines and a degree of doctor habilitated in two disciplines, i.e. machine building and operation, and civil engineering. That makes it possible for the University to conduct doctoral studies providing basis for the development of young research personnel.

Obtained in 2008, the sixth authorisation to confer a doctor’s degree of technical sciences in the discipline of automatics and robotics is, in compliance with the Polish legal regulations, necessary to retain the Polish name “Politechnika” and apply to gain the status of technological or even technical university.

The Kielce University of Technology has secured a position in the international university community owing to collaboration with 72 foreign (mainly European) academic institutions, with which long-term agreements on joint research, improvements in teaching, staff and students exchange have been concluded. International programmes, which make it possible to partly finance student grants (SOCRATES/ERASMUS – presently LLP/ERASMUS), to exchange students, doctoral students and research personnel and to conduct joint research projects (CEEPUS) as well as science-research projects (FITNET, ILTOF), have greatly contributed to the University collaboration with other academic institutions. The implementation of those programmes provides a stimulus which allows the University to continue its development.

Well-planned and vigorously carried out investment projects, mainly based on financial means obtained through EU funding, constitute another major factor contributing to the University development. Investments have made it possible to modernise, to a large extent, the existing buildings and to construct new teaching and research units in the future. The laboratories backup facilities have been upgraded to ensure high standards of teaching and research.

It is my pleasure to present to you “Kielce University of Technology Prospectus 2008-2012”, which, I hope, will provide a full profile of the Faculties: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Automatics and Computer Science, Mechatronics and Machine Building, Management and Computer Modelling, and also the Centre for Laser Technologies of Metals run jointly with the Polish Academy of Sciences on the basis of agreement between the two institutions. The publication can be useful to establish scientific and business cooperation. It will also provide a guide for secondary school leavers who seek learning opportunities in the fields of study, graduates in which are able to pursue careers in demand in the national and international labour market.

Rector
Prof. Stanisław Adamczak, Dr habil., Eng., Dr.h.c.