John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin - History

History

Father Idzi Radziszewski founded the university in 1918. Vladimir Lenin allowed the priest to take the library and equipment of Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy back to Poland to launch the university just as Poland regained its independence. 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 Polish society.

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 invasion of Lublin in July 1944 by the Red Army, the university reopened on 21 August 1944.

Since then the university has functioned without interruption. The university stayed open during the years Poland was under Communism control 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. It was the only independent, Catholic university in existence in the entire Soviet bloc. 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 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 Ph.D.s by departments which were not allowed to grant them, due to not having the sufficient number of academic staff.