University of Białystok

History

After the end of World War II and the establishment a communist regime in the form of the Polish People's Republic, a proposal arose to establish a higher humanities school in Białystok, prompted by the desire of academics from Vilnius University (which became part of the Soviet Union), to settle there. Although local and political authorities recognized the need for such a university, the economic climate at the time did not favour the implementation of the project as well as the shortage of personnel in northeastern Poland in professions requiring economic knowledge and in the teaching profession.

On July 15, 1968, by order of the Minister of Education and Higher Education, Professor Henryk Jabłoński, the Białystok Branch of the University of Warsaw was established as a higher vocational institute called Higher Pedagogical School (Polish: Wyższa Szkoła Nauczycielska). The order specified provisions concerning its supervision, management, and organization. The Branch was subordinated to the University of Warsaw in both organizational and academic matters. It was directly supervised by the university's Vice-Rector, while its internal organization was determined by the Rector. Teaching was provided by staff employed at the Branch as well as by faculty from other University units delegated by the Rector. The Branch operated with its own budget and staffing structure, separate from those of the University of Warsaw.

On July 20, 1968, the Minister of Education and Higher Education issued an order defining the mission and scope of work for the newly established institution. Although the typescript of this order exists, its content is widely known, and it has been cited by numerous authors, the document itself is absent from officially published legal records. Nevertheless, the regulations took effect, and at the start of the 1968/1969 academic year, the Białystok Branch of the University of Warsaw began operating as the Higher Pedagogical School. Three faculties were created at that time: Humanities, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and Elementary Education.

On September 29, 1972, a decree was issued by the Minister of Science, Higher Education, and Technology Jan Marian Kaczmarek granting the Białystok Branch of the University of Warsaw the right to establish its own organizational structure. This decree resulted in the transformation of the school into a university with a full academic profile on October 1, 1972, and the introduction of a single four-year master's degree program and a three-year vocational program.

In December 1981, during the growing political tensions in the country and the subsequent imposing of Martial law, there were growing protests among students of the university. Mirosław Gołębiewski, a student in the university who had witnessed the attempted arrest of his father, Feliks Gołębiewski (former chairman of a local Inter-Enterprise Coordination Committee), relayed the news regarding the beginning of the martial law to his colleagues at the local branch of the Independent Students' Association. A campaign was then launched to secure Strike Committee and NZS documents and printing equipment, transporting them to the Students dormitories.

In the 1980s a public discussion emerged concerning the independence of the Białystok Branch of Warsaw University. In June 1982, at the 21st Session of the Municipal National Council in Białystok, a motion to transform the Białystok Branch of the University of Warsaw into an independent university was passed. In July of that year, the Senate of the University of Warsaw presented its official position regarding the Branch's future, and the Voivodeship National Council in Białystok resolved that "it is advisable, justified, and necessary to create conditions in Białystok for the establishment of a university as soon as possible" entrusting the Voivode of Białystok Voivodeship with ensuring the smooth operation of the future university.

At the end of 1983, Order No. 48 of the Minister of Science, Higher Education, and Technology created a working group to refine the programmatic and organizational concept for the planned University of Białystok. The team brought together representatives from scientific, administrative, and political bodies across three neighbouring voivodeships. Their findings, compiled in the document Programmatic and Organizational Concept of the University of Białystok were submitted to the Minister in June 1984. A month later, the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth established the Citizens’ Committee for the University of Białystok. In December 1984, during its third session, the Białystok Voivodeship Council endorsed these efforts and tasked the Voivode of Białystok Voivodeship with preparing a detailed timetable for further development.

Modern period

In the early 1990s, none of the departments at the Białystok Branch held the right to confer habilitation degrees, and only the Faculty of Economics was authorized to award the doctoral degree in economics. This situation created a significant obstacle to changing the Branch's institutional status. During discussions on the matter, the idea also emerged of integrating five higher education institutions in the city: the Białystok Branch of the University of Warsaw, the Medical Academy, the Branch of the Academy of Music, the Puppetry Department of the State Higher School of Theatre, and the Archdiocesan Higher Seminary. In January 1992, the Temporary Integration Council of Higher Education Institutions was established. In June of that same year, preliminary assumptions for the statute of the University of Białystok were prepared. Subsequently, in March 1993, the Senate of the University of Warsaw, with the support of the Senate Committee of the University of Białystok, adopted a resolution requesting the senates of Białystok's institutions to state their positions on a potential merger that would lead to the creation of the University of Białystok. Although this initiative was ultimately abandoned, efforts aimed at establishing an independent university continued.

International cooperation is also carried out based on about 200 bilateral agreements with institutions from the EU within the framework of the Erasmus programme.

As the first university in the country the University of Białystok launched a foreign branch in Vilnius, Lithuania; the Faculty of Economics and Informatics has been created there, which educates people of mostly Polish origin, but it is also increasingly popular among the Lithuanian youth.

In 2013 the University of Białystok initiated the creation of an international consortium of universities from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia under the name of Border University Network. It is composed of 10 universities. Cooperation shall include applying jointly for international grants, joint research projects, exchange of research and implementation services.