Protests against new higher education reforms

Earlier this month a group of students and professors from the University of Warsaw entered the Kazimierz Palace, the official office of the university’s rector, to protest against new higher education reforms in Poland, writes Marysia Ciupka for Political Critique.

The Kazimierz Palace, a proud relic of Warsaw’s neoclassical architecture and the heart of the university’s main campus in historic Old Town, was occupied for over eight consecutive days and nights by about 20 representatives of the Academic Protesting Committee, an organisation formed by members of the academic community opposing the new higher education bill.

In terms of the bill, councils would have the power to choose universities’ presidents. The protesters fear that with the new bill, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education will gain too much political control over academia, being able to directly influence the content of the teaching programmes at the universities.
Full report on the Political Critique site