The Gdańsk University of Technology (Polish: Politechnika Gdańska) is a technical university in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has nine faculties and with 41 fields of study and more than 26 thousand undergraduate, as well as about 400 doctoral students. It currently[when?] employs 2500 people, including 1200 academic teachers. It received CESAEER Membership in 2015. The rector of the university is professor Henryk Krawczyk. The University, designed by Prof. Albert Carsten, was founded in 1904 as Königliche Technische Hochschule zu Danzig. Early XXth century students took courses at 6 faculties: Architecture, Building Engineering, Machines Construction and Electro-Mechanics, Ship and Maritime Machines Engineering, Chemistry, and General Science. Gdansk (then known as Danzig) was at that time part of the German Empire. The identity of Gdansk is complex because throughout history it belonged in turns to Poland and Germany. There was also a period between 1920 and 1939 when it was declared "The Free City of Danzig" (Freien Stadt Danzig).