University of Ljubljana

The University of Ljubljana, abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. 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. History Beginnings Although certain academies (notably of philosophy and theology) were established as Jesuit higher education in what is now Slovenia as early as the seventeenth century, the first university was founded in 1810 under the Écoles centrales of the French imperial administration of the Illyrian provinces. The chancellor of the university in Ljubljana during the French period was Joseph Walland (a.k.a. , 1763–1834), born in Upper Carniola. That university was disbanded in 1813, when Austria regained territorial control and reestablished the Imperial Royal Lyceum of Ljubljana as a higher-education institution.