The successive term of office of the Kielce University of Technology governing bodies will last from 2012 to 2016. The University, which has existed for almost five decades, is an academic institution with established tradition. During the previous term of office, the 45th anniversary of the founding of the University was 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 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 the Cracow Bishops’ Palace in Kielce.

In a broader context, the University is an heir to the Świętokrzyski Region traditions, an area of a 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 Region. In recent years, metal, machine and 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 economic growth has undoubtedly contributed to the development of a technical school of higher education. The Polish name of the University (Politechnika Świętokrzyska) forms associations with the Region which has remained a bastion of Polish culture and traditions throughout the country’s tumultuous history.

For over forty seven 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 mainly by local enterprises. Many of the University accomplished alumni founded or were employed by a lot of production and services companies recognisable in the country and abroad. The University graduates have undoubtedly been successful, which is also regarded as a success of our institution.

The quality of the academic instruction students receive is also confirmed by high place the University holds in the rankings of Perspektywy monthly and Rzeczpospolita daily, among others.

The high ranking of the University results from diversified areas of instruction offered to students. Those comprise sixteen fields of study, including four new ones which are of key importance to institutions of technical higher learning, namely architecture and town planning, automation 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 seven disciplines and a degree of Doctor habilitated in three disciplines, i.e. machine building and operation, civil engineering and electrical 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 automation and robotics, and seventh authorisation to confer a Doctor’s degree of technical sciences in the discipline of production engineering (2011) are, in compliance with the Polish legal regulations, necessary to retain the Polish name and status of “Politechnika”. In the future it will be possible to convert our institution into a technical university. A step leading to such a conversion is the authorisation obtained in 2010 by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics and Computer Science to confer a degree of Doctor habilitated in the discipline of electrical engineering.

The Kielce University of Technology has secured a position in the international university community owing to collaboration with foreign, mainly European, academic institutions, with which longterm 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 scienceresearch projects (FITNET, ILTOF), have greatly contributed to the University collaboration with other academic institutions.

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 the existing buildings and construct new teaching and research units. The laboratories backup facilities have been upgraded to ensure the highest standards. Due to investments we anticipate new developments in research and teaching.