The Warsaw University of Technology still cultivates traditions from the first
multidisciplinary university of technology which was the Preparatory School for the Institute of Technology. It was opened on 4th January 1826 and its first principal was Kajetan Garbiński, a mathematician and professor of the University of Warsaw. The man who played the most important part in creating the school and writing its syllabus was Stanisław Staszic.
The Warsaw University of Technology has been functioning under its present name since 1915. It became the most important scientific centre of engineering in Poland and gained international prestige in the 1918/1919.

After the collapse of the 1831 November Uprising, Polish then Russian rulers closed the school. Even though it had been in existence for a short time, the school played an important role in the history of technology teaching in Poland. An important event in this period was the opening of Maurycy Mitte's Mechanical and Technical School in 1895, which was later run by Hipolit Wawelberg and Stanisław Rotwand. The school met high education standards and was eventually incorporated into the Warsaw University of Technology. It was not until the late 19th century that the Russian authorities founded the Warsaw University of Technology Institute named after Czar Nicholas II. The first lectures began in the autumn of 1898 in mechanical, chemical and construction engineering, but were in Russian. A year later the institute started to expand. As a result of students' demand for lectures in Polish, the Russian authorities closed the institute for four years. It reopened in the fall of 1908, but Polish students boycotted it.

With the start of World War I, the Germans allowed the school to operate as the Warsaw University of Technology with lectures held in Polish. The university then had four departments: Architecture, Machine Building and Electrical Engineering, Chemistry, and Construction and Agricultural Engineering. Since then, the university has continuously taught students despite two world wars and the German occupation of Poland.

Over the years, the University was an important scientific centre, educating academic staff not only for its own purposes, but also for other Polish schools of technology. It is now one, of the best Polish universities and the best technical university with more than 30 thousands students (before World War II there wewe just over 5000 students). The number
of the academic staff grew significantly. In 1938, the University had 98 tenured professors and associate professors and 307 assistant professors and teaching assistants, whereas in 1948 there were 87 and 471, while now there are 2389 academic teachers: 459 titular professors, 299 associate professors (dr hab.), and 2191 other employees. The Warsaw
University of Technology comprises 148 buildings that house 320 laboratories, IT facilities with 5,200 computers, and a main library with 979,045 books.

The symbol of the Warsaw University of Technology is the historical Main Building. It was the venue of many important historical events: rallies, sessions, meetings and ceremonies.
Here marches and demonstrations were organized. Today, the famous University Audience Hall is a representative place for Warsaw.