World Trends in Human Resource Education for Mineral Engineering and Mining

Abstract

Mineral industry, despite bad press in Europe regarding mining, is a key sector of the global economy decisive for the development of our civilization. Although mining in Europe and in the world has been developing dynamically for several centuries, it was only the twentieth century that brought the dynamic development of higher mining education – mainly in Europe. The 100th Anniversary of the Mining Faculty of AGH – the oldest educational institution of its kind in Poland places our country at the forefront of this discipline. The first Polish mining college was established in 1816 in Kielce, but its activity was modest and ended after 10 years. After regaining independence, in 1919 the first Polish mining college was established in Krakow. It was Mining Academy with the only one- Faculty of Mining Engineering. Currently, education in the discipline of broadly understood mineral engineering and mining is carried out worldwide in 188 higher education institutions, including several one with university status. The place of exchange of experiences in this field is a global professional organization called the Society of Mining Professors, operating since 1991 and being a replica of the first organization of this type established in 1762 in Schemnitz (Banska Stiavnica) – currently Slovakia. Today’s SOMP includes around 300 academic teachers from all over the world, including a large group of full professors. Annual General Meetings (AGM) are a place where new trends and methods of education of mining engineers and development of new mining technologies are presented and discussed. AGM meetings are held annually in another country. The paper presents some aspects that set the trends of today’s education in the field of extracting and processing of mineral resources.