The University of Žilina (UNIZA) is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year. On 16th of May, hundreds of students and employees gathered to celebrate their Alma Mater. This anniversary was an opportunity to reflect on the successes and to celebrate the lively spirit of the university with the famous Slovak band NO NAME, singer Zuzana Smatanová and band BATUCADA which increased people’s heartrate.
UNIZA’s moto is “A University with Tradition”, which refers to its long history of education in the fields of transport, telecommunications and engineering. This tradition goes back to 1953 when the College of Railways was founded by separating the Railways Faculty from the Czech Technical University in Prague. It was renamed ‘University of Transport’ in 1959, and it moved to Žilina in the 60’s. After broadening its fields of interest to wider topics and completing other organisational changes, it was renamed the University of Žilina in 1996.
For 65 years, the University has developed international cooperation with many institutions in Europe, but also in the Americas and Asia. Professors and researchers from the University nowadays are actively involved in many international educational and research projects such as European Union projects TEMPUS, COPERNICUS, COST, ERASMUS+, National Scholarship Programme, DAAD, etc. UNIZA is a hotspot in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) research and was awarded an ERA Chair grant by the European Commission (EC) for the implementation of the 5-year ERAdiate project launched in 2014. ERAdiate is the first EC-funded project to establish an ERA Chair for ITS.
The University of Žilina has a burning ambition to develop education on the basis of scientific research, and its mission is to contribute to the advancement of education, science, and culture for the welfare of the whole society. Its activities are in line with worldwide development in science, technology, art and culture. Prof. Tatiana Čorejová says the vision of UNIZA is to be a university opened to new knowledge, to be a place for sharing, collaborating, and creating new ideas, approaches, methodologies, and solutions. Outputs from research represent fundamental and significant contributions of the University to the benefit of society. Active participation in solving societal challenges is key to fulfilling its mission.
UNIZA research teams comprise around 750 researchers conducting both basic and applied research at national and international level, with the support of national research grants and international cooperation under European and other international programmes.
For further information on the history and mission of UNIZA, please visit http://old.www.uniza.sk/menu/inc.php?id=130
Old pictures of UNIZA can be found here: https://lnk.sk/kBDS, https://lnk.sk/dmBE