John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (in Polish Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Paw?a II, or KUL) is located in Lublin, Poland. Presently it enrols over 19,000 students. It has eight faculties: Theology, Philosophy, Law, Canon Law and Administration, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Humanities, Legal and Economic Sciences in Tomaszów Lubelski, Social Sciences in Stalowa Wola.

History

The university has a short history by the standards of other ancient universities of Europe. Nevertheless, this short history is quite exceptional.

Father Idzi Radziszewski founded the university. Vladimir Lenin allowed the priest to take the library and equipment of Petrograd's Polish Academy of Theology back to Poland in order to launch the university in 1918, just as Poland regained its independence.^[1] The aim of the university was to be a modern place of higher education which would conduct research in the spirit of harmony between science and faith. The university sought to produce a new Catholic intelligentsia which would play a leading role in the Polish community.

The number of students increased from 399 in 1918/1919 to 1440 in 1937/1938. This growth was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War and Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland. During the occupation the university was ordered shut down and its buildings were converted into a military hospital. Many professors and students were persecuted. Nevertheless, the University carried on its teaching activities in secret. After the liberation of Lublin from the German occupation in July 1944 by the Red Army, the university reopened on 21 August, 1944.

Since then the university has functioned without interruption. Remarkably, the university managed to stay open through all the years of Communism in Poland between 1944 and 1989, though some of its faculties did not. The faculties of law, social science and education were shut down between 1953 and 1956.^[1] It was the only independent, Catholic university in existence in the entire Soviet block. Given that the Communist governments all insisted on having a total monopoly of control over educational institutions, the preservation of its independence was a great achievement.

The University was often harassed in various ways by the Communist authorities, especially in the 1950s and the 1960s. The university faculty were under frequent surveillance by the secret police. Periodically some faculties were denied by the state the right to grant graduate degrees. The employment prospects of its graduates were limited.

Despite the difficulties, the university's independence was maintained and it never adopted Marxist dogmas taught at all the other state universities. It served as a haven for all those students who were expelled from state universities for political reasons.

After the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989 the university has flourished, quadrupling its student population and greatly expanding its campus.

The university has recently been involved in a scandal concerning the granting of PhD's by departments which were not allowed to grant them, due to not having the sufficient number of academic staff ^[2].

Rankings

In 2006 Newsweek Polska ranked the university 54^{th [3]} among all Polish universities. Another magazine, Wprost, ranked it 15^{th [4]} among humanity universities.

Notable alumni and professors

• Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojty?a), the most famous person associated with the university. He became a part-time teacher of philosophy at KUL starting in 1954, sharing his time between teaching in Lublin and doing his pastoral work in Kraków. After he became archbishop of Kraków in 1963 and a cardinal in 1967, his duties limited the time he was able to spend teaching in Lublin, and his students often commuted to his lectures in Kraków. His involvement with the university continued until he was elected pope in 1978. All of his philosophical works were published in Lublin.
• Stefan Cardinal Wyszy?ski, Primate of Poland

Notes

External links

• English web page of the Catholic University of Lublin

cs:Katolická univerzita v Lublinu de:Katholische Universität Lublin nl:Katholieke Universiteit van Lublin no:Johannes Paul II katolske universitet i Lublin pl:Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Paw?a II