The Cracow Bishops' Palace - a seat of the first Polish technical higher school called Mining Academy (operated 1816 -1826)

History
University traditions in the Świętokrzyski region go back to the Renaissance period. In the years 1602-1638, Raków was a seat of the Arian Academy, famous in Europe in those days. Professors of the Cracow Academy: Bartłomiej from Radom, Stanisław from Skalbmierz, Maciej from Miechów and Jakub from Iłża came from this region. 
On 4th June 1816, on the initiative of Stanisław Staszic, a great statesman and economist, a distinguished erudite man, writer and reformer, the Government Commission for Religious Creeds and Public Enlightenment issued a directive on establishing the Mining Academy in Kielce. It was meant to meet the demands from mining and metallurgical industries which had developed in the Old-Polish Basin. The school opened in December 1816 and continued operating until December 1826..
The fight for national and social liberation, the uprisings of 1831 and 1863, the year 1905, World War I and the regaining of independence in 1918, as well as the interwar period did not generate favourable conditions to work towards opening a higher school.
In 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Poland, on the initiative of Kielce secondary school teachers contacts were established with Warsaw university circles. As a result, the first year of a university course at the Faculty of Humanities was organised. It was called the University of Western Territories, which ran clandestine courses until the end of June 1945.
The local community continued seeking to provide the talented youth of the Kielce region with higher education options. The more so, that already in the interwar period the city used to have a number of secondary schools, including renowned J. Śniadecki Grammar School. Graduates of that school included well known professors of the Warsaw University of Technology: Wacław Żenczykowski and Jerzy Bukowski.
Driven by a wish to have a local higher school, on 5th October 1960 the community of the region set up the Society of Friends of Higher Vocational Schools in Kielce. The endeavours of that body resulted in opening in Kielce the Centre for Day and Evening Courses of the Cracow Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in the academic year 1962/63. It was later transformed into the Evening and Extramural Course Centre of two Cracow universities, namely the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy and the Technical University. The Centre provided the basis for Kielce-Radom Evening Engineering School established on the strength of the Council of Ministers Order of the 5th June 1965. Two years later, the Council of Ministers Order of the 5th May 1967 transformed the institution into Kielce-Radom Higher Engineering School, which was authorised to run day courses for young people out of employment, as well as evening and extramural courses for those in employment. 
On the basis of the decision of the Minister of Science, Higher Education and Technology of the 30th August 1972, the Mechanical Faculty became the first in the region's history to be authorised to award a degree of doctor of technical sciences. Owing to that, in 1974 it became possible to transform the institution into the Kielce University of Technology.
At that time the University had three faculties and ran courses in three fields of study:
the Faculty of Civil Engineering                         - civil engineering,
the Faculty of Electrical Engineering                  - electrical engineering,
the Mechanical Faculty                                     - mechanics (later changed into termed mechanics and machine building)

It was then that the modern campus of the University was designed. It comprises four teaching halls, laboratory facilities, six student houses and a canteen.

The Present Day of the University
At present, the University has four faculties: the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics and Computer Science, the Faculty of Mechatronics and Machine Building and the Faculty of Management and Computer Modelling. The student population of about
8, 500 people take courses to obtain qualifications in 11 fields of study and 33 specialization areas.
The University is authorised to confer a doctor's degree in 6 disciplines, namely automatics and robotics, civil engineering, environmental engineering, electrical engineering, mechanics, machine building and operation. Moreover, it has a right to award a degree of doctor habilitated in 2 disciplines, i.e. machine building and operation, and civil engineering.
The Kielce University of Technology is a fully academic institution, which offers first, second and third cycle courses. Presently, the University employs 381 academic teachers.
Located on a 22-hectare campus in the city centre, the University's facilities comprise four teaching and laboratory halls, the country-unique Centre for Laser Technologies of Metals, a modern building of the Main Library, six student houses, two apartment buildings and a large building, housing among others, the Pod Krechą Club. The off-campus unit of the University, located in Dąbrowa near Kielce, comprises laboratories, office and teaching buildings of the Faculty of Mechatronics and Machine Building.

The Future
The development of the University over the last few years has contributed to the fully academic status of the institution, which enjoys recognition both domestically and internationally. Almost all graduates find employment, furthermore, employers responding to the survey run by the NEWSWEEK magazine (12th May 2008) ranked the University eight among all Polish universities.
The Kielce University of Technology will undoubtedly continue to develop offering a wide spectrum of educational options which take into account the region's needs and demand for qualified personnel. The process is bound to take place due to conditions prevailing at present, as well as the trends predicted to set in the society, economy, technology and the environment. Other contributing factors are the widening scope of European co-operation, growing globalisation, the dominant role of information civilisation, dynamic advancements in science and technology. A necessity to make education widely available and to continue learning throughout one's life cannot be neglected, either.