Flying University

The Flying University (Polish: Uniwersytet Latający, less often translated as "Floating University") was an underground educational enterprise that operated from 1885 to 1905 in Warsaw, the historic Polish capital, then under the control of the Russian Empire, and that was revived between 1977 and 1981 in the communist People's Republic of Poland.

The purpose of Flying University and similar institutions was to provide Polish youth with an opportunity for an education within the framework of traditional Polish scholarship when that collided with the ideology of the governing authorities. In the 19th century, such underground institutions were important in the national effort to resist Germanization under Prussian and Russification under Russian occupation. In the People's Republic of Poland, the Flying University provided educational opportunities outside government censorship and control of education.