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The establishment of a university to offer technical education in the West Bohemian metropolis was delayed by the economic crisis, the war and the unsupportive regime. Nevertheless, on Monday 17 October 1949, the first students of the University of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (VŠSE) sat down in Pilsen. Initially, it was a branch of the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTUT), a year later it was an independent faculty. Today, the legacy of the VŠSE is continued by three technical faculties of ZČU - mechanical, electrical and applied sciences - as well as the New Technologies Research Centre (NTC).

According to the original plan, teaching was to begin in 1950. However, the enthusiasm of all those involved and the financial and personnel support of Skoda Works made it possible to open the school a year earlier. The classes were taught in the building of the former Chamber of Trades and Commerce in the Petatřicátníky Gardens, the current seat of the Faculty of Law. 67 students entered the first year of the mechanical engineering course and 27 students entered the electrical engineering course.

In its early days the school consisted of classrooms, later departments. In 1951 and 1952 the departments of theoretical, mechanical and electrical engineering, physical education, military training and the department of Marxism-Leninism were established. Later on, a department of machine tools or transport machinery, turbine construction and thermal engineering, material science and mechanical technology, or a department of languages were added.

In 1950 the VŠSE became an independent faculty headed by Dean František Polanský and three years later it was an independent university under the leadership of Rector Vojtěch Voleník. In 1960, a government decree decided to split the VŠSE into two separate faculties - mechanical and electrical engineering. It was a logical reaction to the development of the college, when more and more students attended it. After organisational changes over the years, the foundation stone of the university campus in Bory was laid in 1985 and six years later the present-day University of West Bohemia in Pilsen was established.

The College has been operating under this name since 1991 after the merger of the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Education. At present, ZČU has 9 faculties, 4 research centres and 2 university institutes. Although the technical faculties build on a common heritage, over the years each of them has profiled itself in specific fields in which it provides high quality research and education.

Over the course of its existence, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEL) has become a leader in modern areas of electrical engineering such as smart technologies, renewable energy sources and robotics. "Our faculty has advanced significantly over 75 years thanks to the modern research we do in our own state-of-the-art RICE research centre and our links with industry. We are aware that technical education is key to ensuring the future generation of professionals needed by industry and society as a whole," said Zdeněk Peroutka, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

Over the past decades, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FST) has taken as its mission education and research in the areas of stable nuclear and renewable energy, new materials, technologies and intelligent manufacturing systems. "Studying at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering has been challenging for 75 years, but our graduates are among the best engineers and can be found wherever something new and exciting is happening," said FST Dean Vladimír Duchek.

Although the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAV) is not as memorable as the two aforementioned faculties, it has managed to match both of them in its 34 years of existence. The FAV was established in 1990 by separating disciplines such as cybernetics, mechanics or computer science from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. "From the beginning, FAV was conceived as a faculty strongly oriented towards cutting-edge research. Today, the research centre NTIS - New Technologies for Information Society - is an important part of it. Not only thanks to this, it educates graduates who are in great demand on the labour market," described the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science Miloš Železný.

The activities of the technical faculties of the University of West Bohemia in the region will be commemorated by the celebration of 75 years of technical education in Pilsen, which will culminate on Tuesday, 3 December 2024, with a Social Evening of the University of West Bohemia.