Brno University of Technology is a technical university with eight faculties, continuing the Czech technical university in Brno founded in 1899 as well as the older German technical university.
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According to its own presentation, Brno University of Technology (VUT) offers education ranging from technical to natural-science, economic and artistic fields. It takes part in the work of two centres of excellence in research.[1]
Structure
VUT consists of the faculties of civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and communication technologies, information technology, architecture, chemistry, business and management, and fine arts. The university institutes include the Centre of Sports Activities, the Institute of Forensic Engineering and the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC). The university also includes the Central Library, the VUTIUM publishing house, the Halls of Residence and Canteens, the Institute of Lifelong Learning and the Centre of Information Services.[1]
Beginnings of technical education in Moravia
The need for a technical school in Brno had been growing since at least the 1840s, in connection with the industrial development of the city. The efforts took concrete form in 1847, when Emperor Ferdinand I approved the founding of a technical institution, on 28 November. By a deed of 27 December 1847 the emperor then gave Salomon Mayer Rothschild permission to establish a financial foundation intended to support a future public technical school for Moravia and Silesia. Rothschild founded the foundation as an expression of gratitude for the imperial permission to buy land in Moravia for his business.[1]
The main material provision for the school was taken over by the Moravian Estates. On 24 January 1849 the Moravian Diet adopted a resolution on the establishment of the institution, which bore the German name K.k. technische Lehranstalt and the Czech name C.k. technické učiliště and was conceived as a German-Czech institution. The emperor approved its organisation on 13 September 1849, the first professors were appointed on 29 December 1849 and teaching was ceremonially opened on 14 January 1850. The school struggled with a lack of funds, and many students and professors left for Vienna and Prague.[1]
The emperor approved a new organisational statute and the name C.k. technický institut on 8 July 1867. By Reichsrat Act No. 92 of 4 May 1873 the institute was declared a university-level school under the name German Technical University in Brno (Německá vysoká škola technická v Brně). Students were required to know German, and Czech was no longer a language of instruction. This German technical university was abolished in the autumn of 1945.[1]
The Czech technical university in Brno
The introduction of German, national conflicts and the politicisation of language and school demands led, from the 1890s, to efforts by the Czech-speaking population to obtain an independent Czech technical university and university. These culminated in the imperial decree of 19 September 1899 on the establishment of a technical university with the Czech language in Brno, which was initially called the Imperial and Royal Czech Technical University in Brno (Císařská a královská česká vysoká škola technická v Brně).[1]