About

The University of Silesia in Katowice is accredited to offer 50 full-time and part-time programmes, including unique programmes such as the following: Biophysics, Econophysics, Geophysics, and Medical Physics. The programmes offer a total of over 160 specialisations, including Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Data Analyst, Geophysics, Nanophysics and Mesoscopic Materials, Physics of Nanosystems and Quantum Information Technology, Geoecology, and Geoecotourism. The University of Silesia regularly upgrades its didactic offer by launching new programmes which reflect the needs of the labour market. When planning new programmes it also takes into account guidelines concerning programmes which are regarded as being of special value to the economy, including those which are granted the status of specialties ordered by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. As a result, the university’s offer includes more and more engineering degree programmes. The Faculty of Social Science was established on November 1, 1973 and moved to its present building in the academic year 1978/1979. Its internal structure has been developing for over a decade and at the moment, it comprises four institutes (Institute of Philosophy, Institute of History, Institute of Political Science and Journalism, and Institute of Sociology) and two separate sub-divisions (Department of Economics and Department of Art History). The Faculty offers courses in Philosophy, History, Sociology and Political Science, as well as doctoral programmes and postgraduate courses in Journalism, Management, Ancient and Contemporary History, European Integration, Local and Regional Government, Regional Studies, Organization of Welfare Work, Civic Education, Theory of Social Pathologies, their Prevention and Social Therapy. The faculty manages the most modern of the University’s lecture rooms, which are furnished with audio-visual equipment, as well as a computer lab and a library. The faculty staff consists of 180 academics who are both teachers and researchers. The faculty is entitled to grant doctoral and other degrees in Philosophy, History, Sociology and Political Science. The research conducted by the Institute of Philosophy focuses mainly on the history of philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of technological development and ethics. The Institute of History specializes in the history of Upper Silesia since early medieval times, the development of the educational system in the region, and the history of the Roman Empire. The Institute of Political Science and Journalism undertakes research into the problems of local and regional politics, governmental and political transformations in Central and Eastern Europe, Western democracies, and Polish foreign policy. The Institute of Sociology is especially renowned for its thorough research into the field of general sociology, methods and techniques of sociological research, regional social studies, sociological aspects of economy, sociology of culture, social work, sociology of the family, and sociology of knowledge. The Department of Economics is particularly interested in the economic transformation of Poland against the background of structural changes in Western Europe, while the Department of History of Art is concerned with art and the artistic culture of the region within its historical borders. The faculty cooperates with the following universities and academic institutions: Institute of Art History in Munich (Germany), University of Berlin (Germany), University of Birmingham (UK), University of Bordeaux (France), University of Brno (Czech Republic), University of Cottbus (Germany), University of Stuttgart (Germany), University of Dortmund (Germany), University of Durham (UK), University of East Anglia (UK), University of Grenoble (France), University of Indiana (USA), University of Karlsruhe (Germany), University of Potsdam (Germany), University of Madrid (Spain), University of Granada (Spain), University of Valladolid (Spain), University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Florence (Italy), Univeristy of Padua (Italy), University of Naples – L’Orientale (Italy), University of Odessa (Ukraine), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), University of Olomouc (Czech Republic), University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), University of Salzburg (Austria), University of Tübingen (Germany), Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), and Kadir Has University (Turkey).