The University of Leoben is known as a technical university with a unique orientation.
The Montanuniversität Leoben arises from the k.u.k. Montanlehranstalt, founded and opened in 1835 by erzherzog Johann in Vordernberg. 1849 it was relocated to Leoben and managed as Montanlehranstalt (academy). Under its first principal Professor Peter Tunner, the great montanist and founder of the Montaist academy in Vordernberg, in 1861 it was upgraded to a mining academy and 1904 and equated as Montanist university with the Technical university.