Maria Grzegorzewska University

The Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw, known in Polish as Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej and abbreviated APS, is a Polish university of special education that derives from the tradition of the Institute of Special Pedagogy of 1922, established by its patron, the educator Maria Grzegorzewska. She founded the State Institute of Special Education in that year and directed it from its founding until her death in 1967. She pioneered systematic research on the pedagogy of people with disabilities and took a particular interest in the pedagogy and psychology of people who are blind, have low vision or are deafblind. After the Second World War she reactivated the institute in 1945 and within five years introduced graduate and extramural courses. In 1950, under Stalinist doctrine, it was renamed the State College of Special Education and given a state curriculum, and after the 1956 thaw it regained government support and its initial name. The university stands today at Szczęśliwicka 40 in Warsaw.