History of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Warmia & Mazury in Olsztyn

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The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is one of ten faculties of the Olsztyn University of Agriculture and Technology which was founded on 31st May 1950 for the purpose of educating students to become specialists in agriculture and animal breeding suitable for the agricultural region of north-eastern Poland.
The Olsztyn Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is the youngest of four faculties in Poland. At the request of the Senate of the Academy hitherto called the Higher School of Agriculture, the Minister of Education set up the Veterinary Medicine Department as part of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry on 16th April 1966. On 1st October 1966, 30 students began the first year of a five and half year study programme identical with programmes operating at other faculties around the country. The founding of this new organisation unit was possible due to employing of 9 teachers, 8 of them being from other academic institutions. This group, being the grounds for setting up the Faculty, consisted of: Assistant Prof. Stefan Tarczyński, Assistant Prof. Kazimierz Markiewicz, Zofia Markiewicz D.V.M., Ph.D, Associate Prof. Kazimierz Kalinowski, Assistant Prof. Zofia Kalinowska, Assistant Prof. Wiktor Stefaniak, Assistant Prof. Zdzisław Larski, Assistant Prof. Remigiusz Fitko and Assistant Prof. Tadeusz Szuperski. The teaching staff of the first year of studies were the members of the Veterinary Faculty as well as academic teachers from other faculties and interfaculty units.
Obtaining a sufficient number of academic teachers, buildings and a construction plan for the future Veterinary faculty in the new location in Kortowo II in such a short period of time resulted in the Minister of Education separating the Veterinary Department from the Animal Husbandry Faculty on 1st September 1967 and turning it into an independent faculty.

The first Dean of the newly created Veterinary Faculty was Assistant Prof. Stefan Tarczyński. At the beginning of the academic year 1967/1968, the faculty staff comprised 16 academic teachers employed in the following scientific teaching units:
Department of Parasitology, Department of Pathological Anatomy, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Department of Internal Diseases, Department of Surgery, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Clinical Diagnostics and Department of Pathophysiology.
This last mentioned Department with the Departments of the Faculty of Animal Bioengineering:
Department of Animal Anatomy, Department of Physiology and Department of Biochemistry became part of the Group of Basic Animal Bioengineering and Veterinary Sciences.
In 1968, at the decision of the Rector of Higher Agricultural School (WSR), the Department of Animal Anatomy was included into the Veterinary Faculty and simultaneously the Department of Histology and Embryology was created. Due to the rising number of independent research workers, the following organisational units were created:
1968 - Department of Food Hygiene,
1969 - Department of Obstetrics and Pathology of Reproduction,
1970 - Department of Epizootiology and Department of Avian Diseases.
During the first years of the Veterinary Faculty the majority of departments as well as the dean's office were located in temporary buildings. Due to the fast development of the teaching staff the Faculty obtained the right to confer Ph.D degree in Veterinary Sciences in 1968 and doctor habilitated degree in 1971. At the beginning of 1970s the Faculty already consisted of a full managing staff necessary for the realisation of the five and a half year curriculum and only some of the subjects such as: bee diseases, fur-bearing animal diseases, fish diseases, radiological protection, veterinary forensic medicine and administration, were taught by teachers outside of Kortowo (the Veterinary Institute in Puławy, the Civil Defence Inspectorate of the Ministry of National Defence in Olsztyn, the Provincial Veterinary Institute in Olsztyn).

In 1980 the Department of Veterinary Prophylaxis and Feed Hygiene was set up, 1988 the Department of Forensic and Administrative Veterinary Medicine was set up, and in 1997 the last, 18th, organisational unit of the Faculty, Department of Physiology, was set up. In 1973 a unique for Poland, scientific research unit - the Centre for Biological and Toxicological research was set up. This centre was an experimental station for the Faculty and the university, which carried out the breeding of experimental animals (mice, rats, dogs, miniature pigs) and performed toxicological research for the pharmaceutical industry. In 1990 due to the decrease in number of requests, the activities of the Centre were suspended temporarily. The Faculty was still being organised while new buildings were being constructed. The first stage of the construction was building the hitherto Institute of Non-infectious Diseases at Kortowo II, which was started in 1975 and completed in 1979. The second stage of the construction was building the hitherto Institute of Infectious and Invasive Diseases which was started in 1980 and completed in 1985-86. In 1987 the Department of Animal Anatomy moved into their completed building. The third stage of construction (the site of the Institute of Basic Veterinary Sciences) was not started due to shortage of money. The dean's office, the library, and other departments which were supposed to be located in this building, were located in other buildings. On 1st September 1994 the Veterinary Faculty changed its name to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.