I BELIEVE IN THE RESEARCH POTENTIAL OF OUR UNIVERSITY’S STAFF Rita Pagacz-Moczarska interviews Professor Wojciech Nowak, Rector of the Jagiellonian University
■ “We want our Jubilee to communicate a specific message. On the one hand we want to say that the 650th year of the Jagiellonian University, Poland’s oldest university, also marks the 650th anniversary of the country’s higher education system; and also that in the course of those 650 years the Jagiellonian University has educated many outstanding individuals, including Nicolaus Copernicus, Jan Kochanowski, Piotr Skarga, Jan Sobieski, Hugo Kołłątaj, Karol Olszewski, Zygmunt Wróblewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Karol Wojtyła, and Wisława Szymborska. On the other hand we also wish to emphasise that with a legacy of so many centuries of cherishing and cultivating knowledge and truth, concern for what is most important in higher education is an inherent part of our University’s mission. People often say that the mission of a university is to teach and conduct research, but we wish to stress another important factor, and that is to educate responsible citizens for our Country. Glorying in our history is not what we want to do during the Jubilee. We want to talk about the problems and the challenges now facing Poland’s universities and colleges. Over the past 25 years there has been huge change in many spheres in Poland, including higher education, which has become a phenomenon on a mass scale. Gross enrolment ratio has gone up from 10% to 60%. Numerous state and private schools of higher edu-
cation have been founded, and there are now 400 of them in a country of nearly 40 million. But at the moment we’re going through a population slump, we’re grappling with financial problems, and observing a crisis in the ethos of academic tutorship, in the student–teacher relationship. So the question we want to ask during the Jubilee is where are we heading for? ” Anna Wojnar
□ “This year the Jagiellonian University is celebrating its 650th year. In recognition of the tremendous achievement of Poland’s oldest University, the Senate of the Republic of Poland has declared 2014 the Jubilee Year of the Jagiellonian University, the intention being to make the celebration of Kraków’s Alma Mater also a celebration for the whole of Polish scholarship. How is the University going to meet this challenge?”
□ “To be able to develop for the needs of the 21st century Polish universities will have to work in partnership with industry. Thanks to the Innovative Economy Programme there will be an opportunity for substantial funding within the framework of this programme…” ■ “Yes, that’s right. There will be an opportunity for universities to access very substantial EU funds in 2014–2020, but we have to bear in mind that there is a condition – the transfer of technology to industry. Time will tell how well we manage to acclimatise to partnership between science and business. Will we be able to persuade big companies to embark on research projects together with us and jointly apply for EU resources? I hope so. But it’ll call for a new mode of thinking.”
alma mater No. 166
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