Opole Voivodeship offers a variety of education opportunities and specialties. The Region’s six higher education institutions (including vocational ones) provide the necessary research infrastructure. The City of Opole is the Region’s largest academic centre, home to the Opole University, the Technical University of Opole, the State Medical Vocational School and the School of Management and Administration, with over thirty one thousand university students. Two other higher education institutions in the Region are the State Technical Vocational School in Nysa and the School of Humanities and Pedagogy in Brzeg. In addition, many satellite branches of the country’s universities have been established in other cities of the Region.
The research potential of the Opole Voivodeship is completed by four research facilities (Institute of Mineral Building Materials, “Blachownia” Institute of Heavy Organic Synthesis in Kędzierzyn, Polish Academy of Sciences – Institute for Environmental Technologies) with the Silesian Institute as a leading centre, and Opolski Park Technologiczny (Opole High – Tech Park).
Among the prominent cultural institutions in the city is the Józef Elsner Opole Philharmonic (that gave a concert on the Brussels Grand Place to mark the accession of Poland into EU, and made a large concert tour in China in 2004-2005), Jan Kochanowski Theatre (that every year hosts the “Polish Classic Theatre Confrontations”), or Alojzy Smolka Theatre of the Puppet and Actor in Opole (National Festival of Puppet Theatres). And last but not least, the Opole Millennium Amphitheatre, hosting the yearly National Festival of Polish Song.
Many out-of Region’s capital city periodical cultural events are organised: the Music Feast of Blossoming Azaleas (The Castle in Moszna), Festival of English Song and International Poet Invasion of the Silesian Piast Dynasty Castle in Brzeg, “Gaude Mater Polonia in memoriam of Vincent de Kielcza” or the International Percussion Festival.
