The University of Pardubice builds on an almost seventy-year long tradition of higher education in the Pardubice Region. The Chemical College (later known as the Institute of Chemical Technology) was founded in 1950 to address the needs of the East Bohemia Region, which had a highly developed chemical industry providing extensive opportunities for research in the field. The character of the Institute notably changed after 1990: new faculties were founded, offering a wide range of study programmes, not only chemistry-related.