Meeting of the Minister of Science and Higher Education with rectors of public universities | Gdańsk University of Technology

The meeting of the rectors elected for the 2020-2024 term with Wojciech Murdzek, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Deputy Minister Anna Budzanowska and Sebastian Skuza, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance took place on 10 September at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Individual panels of the conference were devoted to the following issues: effects of the implementation of the Law on Higher Education and Science (the so-called Constitution for Science), university system, education, strategic programs, the so-called excellence initiatives.

Prof. Krzysztof Wilde was invited to a discussion at the session devoted to the university system, during which he spoke, among others, about the current organizational model of GUT and the university's orientation towards an entrepreneurial university.

- The entrepreneurial university towards which we are heading exists to solve the socio-economic problems of the region. It consists of a management center composed of the rector, university council, senate and scientific discipline councils. It is a center that defines goals and assigns tasks (just like in business), and on the other hand performs a service function, because it also deals with the search for resources and adaptation to the needs in order to achieve the best effect. According to the new solution around this center there are faculties (permanent units), research centers (flexible but formalized units focused around a given problem) and structures within which the free organization of people is supported in order to implement an interesting project - says prof. Krzysztof Wilde.

During the panel, the statutes of the universities were also discussed and assessed.

- All panel participants agreed that the skeleton of the university statute should remain constant, but many elements can be improved and adapted to the changing needs - says prof. Wilde. - In the case of our university, we collect applications for amendments to the statute from the academic community, which are systematically analyzed. Proposals that receive support from the senate will be introduced. We are currently adjusting the proportions of the composition of the university council, where we have statutory three members from the university and from the external environment, and a representative of the student government. We believe that a stronger voice should be given outside, and after voting, we will be moving towards the model: five outside members, one representative of the university and one student representative.

A separate part of the meeting with rectors was a discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on the higher education and science system. It was attended by Deputy Minister Anna Budzanowska and Izabela Kucharska, Deputy Chief Sanitary Inspector.