Marche Polytechnic University (Italian Università Politecnica delle Marche) is a public university in Ancona, Italy. It offers three year degrees in Agriculture, Engineering, Economics, Medicine, and Sciences, as well as longer specialist programs in Medicine and Biology. Courses began at the beginning of November in 1959 as a branch of the University of Urbino. The university itself began in 1969 with approval of a charter for the Independent University of Ancona and by-laws establishing a 2-year course of study for the Faculty of Engineering and a 3-year course of study for the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. The Higher Council on Public Education recognized the Faculty of Engineering for the 1969-70 academic year and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery for the following year, and the University of Ancona was recognized as a state university on January 18, 1971. Faculties of agriculture and sciences were added over the next two decades, and in January 2003 the University was renamed to the Università Politecnica delle Marche.