Univerza v Ljubljani | |
 | |
| Latin:Universitas Labacensis[1] | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1919; 106 years ago (1919) |
| Rector | Gregor Majdič |
Administrative staff | cca 3,500 |
| Students | 37,615[2] |
| Location | , |
| Affiliations | Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities Utrecht Network UNICA |
| Website | www Building details |
 Main building of the University at 5Congress Square, June 2015 | |
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| University rankings | |
|---|---|
| Global – Overall | |
| ARWU World[3] | 601–700 (2023) |
| QS World[4] | 621–630 (2024) |
| THE World[5] | 801–1000 (2024) |
| USNWR Global[6] | =450 (2023) |
| Regional – Overall | |
| QS Emerging Europe and Central Asia[7] | 33 (2022) |
TheUniversity of Ljubljana (Slovene:Univerza v Ljubljani,pronounced[uniʋɛ́ːɾzawljubljàːni],Latin:Universitas Labacensis), abbreviatedUL, is the oldest and largestuniversity inSlovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students.[8] The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and research staff, assisted by approximately 2,000 technical and administrative staff. The University of Ljubljana offers programs in the humanities, sciences, and technology, as well as in medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science.
The university was founded in the centre of Ljubljana, where the central university building and the majority of its faculties are located. Since then, newer buildings have been constructed in the suburbs of the city.
Although certain academies (notably ofphilosophy andtheology) were established asJesuit higher education in what is now Slovenia as early as the seventeenth century, the first university was founded in 1810 under theÉcoles centrales of theFrench imperial administration of theIllyrian provinces. The chancellor of the university in Ljubljana during the French period wasJoseph Walland (a.k.a.Jožef Balant [sl], 1763–1834), born inUpper Carniola. That university was disbanded in 1813, whenAustria regained territorial control and reestablished the Imperial Royal Lyceum of Ljubljana as a higher-education institution.
During the second half of the 19th century, several political claims for the establishment of aSlovene-language university in Ljubljana were made. They gained momentum in thefin de siècle era, when a considerable number of renownedSlovene academians worked throughoutCentral Europe, while ever more numerous Slovenian students were enrolled in foreign-language universities of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, particularly in theAustrian andCzech lands. Notable examples are theCharles University inPrague and theUniversity of Olomouc, the latter of which SlovenephilosopherFranc Samuel Karpe became thechancellor of in 1781. In the 1890s, a unified board for the establishment of a Slovenian university was founded, withIvan Hribar,Henrik Tuma, andAleš Ušeničnik as its main leaders. In 1898, theCarniolan regional parliament established a scholarship[clarification needed] for all students who were planning ahabilitation under the condition that they would accept a post at Ljubljana University when founded. In this way, a list of suitable members of faculty started to emerge.
Nevertheless, unfavorable political circumstances prevented the establishment of the university until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the establishment of the short-livedState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in 1918, the founding of the university became possible. On November 23, 1918, the first meeting of the Founding Board of Ljubljana University was called, presided over byMihajlo Rostohar, professor ofpsychology at theCharles University inPrague. Together withDanilo Majaron, Rostohar convinced the central government of theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes inBelgrade to pass a bill formally establishing the university. The bill was passed on July 2, 1919; in late August, the first professors were appointed, and on September 18, the full professors established the University Council, thus starting the normal functioning of the institution. The first lectures started on December 3 of the same year.
In 1919, the university comprised five faculties: law, philosophy, technology, theology and medicine. The seat of the university was in the centralCongress Square of Ljubljana in a building that had served as the State Mansion of Carniola from 1902 to 1918. The building was first designed in 1902 byJan Vladimír Hráský, and was later remodelled by aCzech architect fromVienna,Josip Hudetz.
In the mid-1920s, the university was renamed the "King Alexander University in Ljubljana" (Universitas Alexandrina Labacensis) and continued to grow despite financial troubles and constant pressure from Yugoslav governments’centralist policies. In 1941,Jože Plečnik'sNational and University Library was completed, as one of the major infrastructure projects of the university in the interwar period.
After theinvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the university continued to function under theItalian and Nazi German occupation, despite numerous problems and interference in its autonomous operation. Several professors were arrested or deported toNazi concentration camps and large numbers of students joined either theLiberation Front of the Slovenian People or theSlovenian Home Guard.
Following the end of the Second World War, the first and only foreigner elected to hold the office of chancellor was theCzech professor Alois Král, who had lectured at Faculty of Technical Sciences since 1920 and also held the position of dean thereof four times.[9] After the establishment of CommunistYugoslavia in 1945, the university was again put under political pressure[citation needed]: numerous professors were dismissed[citation needed], some were arrested and tried[citation needed], and the theological faculty was excluded from the university.[citation needed] Some of the most brilliant students emigrated[citation needed]. Nevertheless, the university maintained its educational role and regained a limited degree of autonomy from the mid-1950s onward. It suffered a serious setback in autonomy from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, when some professors were again dismissed by the authorities[citation needed]. In 1979 it was renamed "Edvard Kardelj University in Ljubljana" after the Communist leader. In 1990, with the fall of Yugoslavia, it was regiven its original name.
As of 2018[update], the university has 23 faculties and three academies, situated throughout urban Ljubljana:[10]
The university was initially located in the centre of Ljubljana where the central university building and the majority of its faculties are located. Later on, some new, modern buildings and a small scale campus were constructed in other parts of the city (Bežigrad,Vič,Brdo).
The University of Ljubljana has twouniversity libraries. TheNational and University Library of Slovenia is thenational library of Slovenia and the university library of the University of Ljubljana. It contains about 1,307,000 books and numerous text, visual and multimedia resources.
Another university library is theCentral Technological Library, which is also the national library and information hub of natural sciences and technology. There are over 30 libraries at individual faculties, departments, and institutes of the University of Ljubljana. The largest among them are theCentral Humanist Library in the field ofhumanities, theCentral Economic Library in the field ofeconomics, theCentral Medical Library in the field ofmedical sciences, and theLibraries of the Biotechnical Faculty in the field ofbiology andbiotechnology.[11]
The university operates an art gallery, open since 18 June 2012.[12]
The University of Ljubljana practices research inscience and thearts, such as thehumanities,social sciences,linguistics,arts,medicine,natural sciences andtechnology.
The University of Ljubljana used to house the permanent seat of the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS), an international academic group consisting of 10,000 political science graduate and undergraduate students worldwide from 2004 to 2013. In March 2013 the Permanent Seat was relocated to Nijmegen (Netherlands).[13]
The University of Ljubljana was ranked 601-650 inQS World University Rankings 2023.[14]
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian psychoanalytic philosopher, cultural critic, and Hegelian Marxist. He attended Ljubljana and attained a Master of Arts in philosophy in 1975,[15] and is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana.
Marko Bošnjak (judge) (born 12 March 1974) is aSlovenian jurist, judge of theEuropean Court of Human Rights, attorney and academic.
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