Lund University (Regia Academia Carolinæ Lundensis) was
founded during the reign of Charles XI in December 1666, when Sweden
had won the province of Scania from Denmark through the Peaces of
Roskilde (1658) and Copenhagen (1660). In the beginning, it's main
task was to "swedify" the newly conquered province by educating
priests, judges, and other administrating civil servants.
Lund University was actually only the fifth university in Sweden of
those days. Uppsala University (founded in 1477) was for a long time
Sweden's only institution of higher learning and education, but
during the reigns of Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter Christina the
Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (one Sweden's most remarkable men ever)
initiated the founding of new universities in Dorpat (Tartu) in 1632
and in Åbo (Turku) in 1640. As a result of Sweden's new
territorial aquisitons through the Westphalian Peace 1648, the
Greifswald University (founded already in 1456; situated in the
German province of Vor-Pomerania, which was occupied by the Swedes
since 1631) also came into Swedish hands. Thus, Lund University was
the youngest member of a rather large academic family. Its official
motto, "Ad utrumque paratus", marked its duties from the beginning to
defend Scania with both the learning of the book and (if necessary)
the force of the sword.
It was not at all obvious that the new university should be located
in Lund. A number of the advisors to King Charles XI argued that the
public institutions in Scania should be moved to the fortified towns
of Malmö and Landskrona. It was mostly the fact that the
Cathedral provided a good lecture-hall (together with the tradition
from the Catholic "Studium Generale" during the 15th and 16th
centuries) that finally decided the matter.
The University opened its activities officially on January 28th,
1668. In the first years its conditions were rather insecure, and it
had to cancel its activities during wars and other times of
"emergency". In the 1680's the university got a Royal Endowment,
consisting of a number of farms in Skåne, in order to provide a
"secure income". (Onto the end of the 19th century a number of
university professors had prebends or other incomes in kind from
these farms as part of their salary.) Already in the beginning of its
work, Lund University had some famous professors, e.g. Samuel
Pufendorf, the Law professor, and Andreas Spole, a famous astronomer.
During the 18th century, the university had a number of well-known
natural scientists (actually, Carl Linnæus was first a student
in Lund before he moved to the better-provided University of
Uppsala!). The first half of the 19th century was the first "golden
age" of Lund University with many cultural personalities, first of
them all Esaias Tegnér, Professor in Greek, one of Sweden's
greatest poets ever, later Bishop of Växjö.
Today, Lund University is Sweden's largest university with more than
35,000 students and nearly 7,000 employees. Its yearly budget
comprises about 400 million ECU. It has establishments in Lund,
Malmö, Helsingborg, and Markaryd (in the province of
Småland). It comprises Faculties of Technology, Natural
Sciences, Law, Social Sciences, Medicine, Odontology, Humanities, and
Divinity. It also has a Teachers' Training College, a College of
Music, a Theatre School, and an Art School (all situated in
Malmö).
For further information about Lund University, visit its official
homepage.
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This page was updated June 28th, 1996.
(On this very day 287 years ago, King Charles XII lost the battle of
Poltava to Czar Peter the Great of Russia. Today 82 years ago,
Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo.)
