The Museum of the University of Gdańsk (MUG) is a newly established (2018) university-wide unit focused primarily on collecting, processing, storing and sharing items connected with the history and culture of the University of Gdańsk and the history of science.

The establishment of the MUG forms part of the celebrations of 50 years of the University of Gdańsk, the largest university in the Pomeranian region, founded in 1970, following an amalgamation of the Higher School of Economics in Sopot and the Higher Pedagogical School in Gdańsk, whose beginnings go back to 1945-1946.

The jubilee year (2020) will see the opening of the permanent MUG exhibition, which will be located in the heart of Gdańsk’s Old Town, in a university building at ul. Bielańska 5.

The future exhibition will generally be divided into two parts. The first will be devoted to the history and tradition of the Higher School of Economics and Higher Pedagogical School as well as the University of Gdańsk itself over the past 50 years. Alongside the artefacts, iconography and audio-visual material connected with the founding of the university, its authorities, staff and scientific activity, the exhibition will also cover issues connected with student culture or the everyday life of student homes. The history of the university will be presented in the wider context of the development of political, scientific and academic life in post-war Poland.

The second part of the exhibition, intended as a larger section and made up of modules which will evolve, will focus on the preservation and dissemination of recent scientific heritage. In other words, the MUG is to become the guardian of academic memory (about the institutions which formed the basis for the University of Gdańsk and about the university itself) but also a kind of a museum of science (inevitably interdisciplinary in nature), with particular focus on the research and achievement of the academic community of the University of Gdańsk.

Apart from the permanent exhibition, the museum will also prepare temporary exhibitions.

In the long term, the MUG’s additional activities will concentrate around the following three areas:

• documentary and research work into the history of the University of Gdańsk (including research conducted at the university) and its predecessors,
• animation and coordination (in partnership with other entities) of activities aimed at popularising knowledge about the history of science in Gdańsk and Eastern Pomerania (also prior to 1945),
• promotion of the University of Gdańsk’s activity (among others, through co-organising promotion of university publications), drawing on the excellent location in the centre of Gdańsk.

The work of the MUG is headed by Dr Jan Daniluk, a professional historian and University of Gdańsk graduate. 

www.muzeum.ug.edu.pl