Do I need "the" before the name of my university in the header?

Question

Header:

Politechnika Wroclawska - name of university in my language

(the Wroclaw University of Technology) - translated name of university in the brackets

This header is contained in the official document.

If the name of the university is Politechnika Wroclawska, then there is no need to use 'the' in front. — GreaseMonkey, Oct 08 '13 at 14:26
Use of English doesn't require the proper name of places to be translated formally. It is acceptable to use the Polish name and most educated people will recognise the word Politechnika without a translation. Presumably the reader of the document will be educated. — GreaseMonkey, Oct 08 '13 at 14:43
Welcome to the site, but please search before posting; this question is a duplicate of Definite article before schools, colleges, and universities, as well as, from just a couple of days ago, When is there a “the” at the beginning of a university's name? and about a half dozen others. — choster, Oct 08 '13 at 14:45
In this case the question is slightly different as it also involves a non-English name. — GreaseMonkey, Oct 08 '13 at 15:46

Andrew Leach · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-08T14:44:03.557

Generally, where a member of a class (the class of all universities) is particularised (say by the addition of "Wroclaw") then you don't need the definite article.

Wroclaw Polytechnic or
Wroclaw University of Technology

will be sufficient for a letterhead. Some insititutions do require the The, but that's a matter of style/affectation which they have adopted.

Where the name of the institution has the determiner/particulariser at the end (as in "University of Sussex") it's normal to use the definite article at the front because there is only one of that particular institution.

The University of Sussex

This applies to including the name in other sentences, too:

I attend the University of Sussex.
I attend Sussex University.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '13 at 14:28

1

If it were me, I'd put in the "The" (capitalized as I did here. The article is part of the title).

However, you should know that in English (at least in the USA) there is no hard rule here. For example, Oklahoma State Univerity is usually written and pronounced without the article, while Ohio State likes to be a stickler about people using the article: The Ohio State University (I suspect as a backhanded slap at Ohio University).

answered Oct 08 '13 at 14:28

T.E.D.

18,544

Perhaps that is because "The" is actually part of their name? "Harvard" is not normally referred to as "The Harvard" is it? – GreaseMonkey Oct 08 '13 at 14:33
But that's just the point... they made "The" part of their name unnecessarily. :) – THEAO Oct 08 '13 at 15:19

Do I need "the" before the name of my university in the header?

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