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Rector's Address

Prof. PaedDr. René Bílik, CSc., Rector

By entering the official website of Trnava University in Trnava, you have become its visitors. We are sincerely pleased and warmly welcome you to our alma mater. The Mother Goddess, the Nourishing Mother - these are the meanings of this connection, which today describes the university itself and shows the character of the university as a community built on the principle of cohesion, mutual internal dialogue, and understanding protected by the authority of the academic institution. The openness to the outside world gives a sense to it, the desire for knowledge, and the passing of already known.

Although you cannot find all five faculties of Trnava University in one place, its seat is right in the historical centre of the Trnava city, which was the first in the territory of today's Slovakia to receive the privileges of a free royal city. This was in 1238. In 1543 the Archbishop moved to Trnava, and Trnava became a church and cultural centre. I mention these fragments from the history of the city because they are an integral part of the genius loci - the spirit of the place, which includes not only the present university buildings but also several historical buildings forming the architectural gems of the city. These are present and tangible traces of its long and glorious past and the long and glorious history of Trnava University. The central position among them is occupied by the former university, now the Cathedral Church of John the Baptist, adjacent to the complex of buildings of the current Military Archives or the building called Adalbertinum, which is a few steps from the temple and is owned by the university. Surrounded by all this, we have the opportunity, so to speak, to draw energy every day from the legacy of our predecessor. Its origin is connected with the name of Cardinal Péter Pázmány. He, as the Archbishop of Esztergom and Cardinal, founded the University of Trnava in 1635. This founding act and its unfolding history are an integral part of the ground on which the Trnava University in Trnava was renewed in 1992 and on which we continue to base the identity of our university community.

Trnava University in Trnava is a humanitarian and socially oriented university, and the prevailing tone of politically motivated social debate about education could question the practical meaning of such an educational institution. However, our five faculties prepare graduates for employment, the basic characteristic of which is, first of all, helping others and preparing for quality and fulfilled life experience. The success of our graduates - nurses, social workers and social educators, teachers for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, theologians and priests performing daily pastoral work, psychologists, archaeologists, lawyers - their demand in the labour market radically question the unimportance of humanitarian education and confirm the legitimacy of our efforts. The organizing framework for all this is natural curiosity driving our scientific research, which is the basis for offering our study programs, and the core is the elementary responsibility for the privilege of academic freedom, basic human and academic dignity, and tolerance. Our results so far have ranked us among the best universities in Slovakia; we have the status of a research university and a rich partnership with national and foreign educational and scientific research institutes.

Dear friends, welcome to our academic ground again, I wish you and us a lot of success, creative curiosity and I am looking forward to our mutual cooperation.

Prof. PaedDr. René Bílik, CSc., Rector