Polytechnic University of Timișoara

Politehnica University of Timișoara

Universitatea Politehnica Timișoara
Former names	Politehnica School Traian Vuia Polytechnic Institute
Motto	It's not the walls that make a school, but the spirit living inside     King Ferdinand I, 1923
Type	Public
Established	1920
Rector	Prof. eng. Viorel Aurel Șerban, Ph.D
Administrative staff	Over 1,100
Students	~14,000
Location	Timișoara, Romania
Campus	16 dorms, 2 student restaurants, 1 central library, 1 student clinic, 2 hotels, 1 television studio, 2 sports units
Website	www.upt.ro

Politehnica University of Timișoara (Romanian: Universitatea Politehnica Timișoara) is a public university founded on November 11, 1920. Located in Timișoara, Romania, it is one of the largest technical universities in Central and Eastern Europe.

The university's research and scientific training is based on the strategy of promoting multidisciplinary research and the priority given to new technology. In 2011, Politehnica University of Timișoara was classified as an advanced research and education university by the Ministry of Education, thus becoming the only university in Western part of Romania categorized among the best 12 university in the country.

Professor Traian Lalescu was the one who strove to fulfill the dream of the people from the Banat region: the Polytechnic School. His first care was to find suitable staff, given the fact that any school lives through its teachers. At the beginning, as the school did not have its own headquarters, it functioned as a secretariat of the city hall. At this office the first admission procedures were carried out. During the first year, the university started its activity with a number of 117 students: 89 enrolled in the first year and 28 in the preparatory year. Carrying out he first courses required a building. At that time, the classes were help at a former school from Timișoara which now belongs to the Faculty of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering. The cafeteria was located in an old sailing club called Regatta, on the banks of the Bega river. As far as the accommodation is concerned, unfortunately, at that time, the only place that could be used was a disused military prison.

At that time, Traian Lalescu offered the students the following services:

As a teacher, Traian Lalescu was deeply engaged and taught an impressive number of courses having an extremely varied content; this was possible to his the trips to France and Germany, during which he deepened his studies and teaching techniques.

According to the Scimago Lab, based on data collected between 2007 and 2011, Politehnica University of Timișoara ranked 1251 in the World, 68 regionally and 6 in the country by number of publications. Moreover, the international evaluation carried out by the European University Association (EUA) concluded that "Politehnica University of Timișoara is a high-performance university which enjoys a distinguished reputation within the surrounding society".