Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń or NCU (Polish: Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, UMK) is located in Toruń, Poland. It is named after Nicolaus Copernicus, who was born in Toruń in 1473 Overview The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (NCU) was founded in 1945. It is one of the largest universities in Poland, currently comprising 16 faculties (including 3 medical faculties at Collegium Medicum UMK in Bydgoszcz). It provides graduate and postgraduate courses for almost 21 500 students, offering education in over 100 fields of study and 55 postgraduate courses. 

The university employs 4052 staff on both Toruń and Bydgoszcz campuses, over half of whom are academic teachers. NCU alumni now number around 200 000. The university participates in student and staff exchange programs at both international (the Erasmus+ program, YUFE) and national (the MOST program) levels. It develops studies in cooperation with universities abroad and is currently collaborating with the universities in Angers (economics) and Moscow (history). Since 2020 NCU has been a member of Young Universities for the Future of Europe alliance (YUFE) – one of the first European Universities. 

This partnership aims to establish a new model of higher education engaging students, staff, citizens, and businesses, providing rich and various offer all can benefit from. Exchanging programs allow NCU community to take part in initiatives organised in 10 European countries both in physical and virtual form at the same time inviting foreigners to get more acquainted with NCU. The University Library holds an imposing collection of nearly 3 million printed volumes, periodicals and special collection items. NCU campus hosts the Academic Centre for Arts and Culture ‘Od Nowa’, one of the oldest students’ clubs in Poland. 

This has contributed to the Nicolaus Copernicus University’s position as one of the five best universities in Poland and it is also the reason why QS World University Ranking has placed NCU in the top 4% of universities in the world. History The first institution of higher education in Torun, the Toruń Academic Gymnasium was founded in 1568 on Piekary street. It was one of the first universities in northern Poland. The Academic Gymnasium was the precursor to scientific and cultural life (including the first museum created in 1594) in the region. Thanks to the efforts of Heinrich Stroband, city mayor in 1594, academics in Toruń received good working conditions for teaching and research. 

Among his professors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were meritorious scholars of Polish and Prussian history, authors of textbooks and papers from various disciplines of humanities, and associates scientific journals. In the interwar period the city authorities of Toruń again sought to establish a university. Soon after the annexation of Pomerania to the reborn Poland in 1920, a new phase of efforts to develop the university began. Even before 1920 the Supreme People's Council had considered the proposal to establish higher educational institutions in the Polish territories annexed by Prussia at the University of Gdansk and in Toruń. 

However, political developments and the uncertain future of Pomerania prompted the council's leadership to accept the December 1918 resolution of the Sejm to overlook Toruń as a location for a new university and instead go ahead with the development of a university in Poznań. In 1920, the first declaration requesting the establishment of a university was put forward in November by the National Workers Party whose members chose Toruń-born Nicolaus Copernicus to be the patron of the University. For this purpose a number of educational societies, such as the Baltic Institute (later transferred to Gdynia, and then to Gdańsk) amongst others, were established in the town.