The In Solidarity with Ukraine project ‘All for One. Bridge to the Future’ was implemented at the University of Silesia from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 with funding from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).
In May 2021, the rectors of the Transform4Europe consortium, of which the University of Silesia has been a member since 2020, decided to admit Mariupol State University to the alliance as an associated partner. The Ukrainian university has been identified as requiring special support, as an institution that faces reconstruction (including actual reconstruction of the headquarters) in a new location in the face of a still ongoing war.
This is the second time that the University has had the opportunity to extend special support to Mariupol State University thanks to funding from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange as part of the ‘ In Solidarity with Ukraine’ programme (the first edition of the ‘All for One’ project ended at the end of 2023). The ‘All for One. Bridge to the Future’ project was approved for implementation in 2024 with NAWA support representing 100% of its budget.
The aim of the project was to strengthen the teaching, research, and organisational capacities of Mariupol State University and to raise key competencies for the future of the university among its academic community. In defining the activities at the NAWA application stage, it was important to involve representatives of the Mariupol State University’s academic community, so that not only the substantive needs of the community but also potential opportunities for implementation could be identified.
As part of the project, the students, doctoral students and employees (65 people in total) had the opportunity to improve their competencies in areas such as:
- knowledge of the Polish language,
- ability to work as part of a team,
- working in an international environment,
- effective communication, leadership, self-presentation,
- teaching in higher education,
- raising external funds and managing grant projects.
An important part of the project, which aimed to strengthen the position of Mariupol State University in the structures of the T4EU alliance and in the European academic community, was to enable representatives of the Ukrainian university to participate in international academic events organised by the University of Silesia:
- EuroScience Open Forum (June 2024),
- Transform4Europe Strategic Assembly (October 2024),
- Transform4Europe Week (October 2024),
- the closing weekend of the European City of Science Katowice 2024 (December 2024),
- Silesian Science Festival Katowice (December 2024).
Taking advantage of the presence of representatives of partner universities, the grand opening ceremony of the Mariupol State University Centre at the University of Silesia was held on 24 October 2024. The Centre’s task is to integrate the Ukrainian community of the city and region and to centralise the educational and scientific offer aimed at Ukrainian citizens.
The third pillar of the project was activities to support the Mariupol State University in the development of the university’s new strategy. A team made up of Mariupol State University’s top management (rector, pro-rectors, internationalisation staff) and the University of Silesia’s (vice-rector for international and domestic cooperation, institutional coordinator of the European University Alliance) worked on creating a document setting out priority directions in the strategy for the operation and development of Mariupol State University in the current conditions in Ukraine. The Mariupol State University representatives were also given the opportunity to consult Transform4Europe universities. Two study visits were organised to two alliance partner universities – the University of Alicante (Spain) and the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal). There were 13 participants in the visits, 10 of whom represented the Mariupol State University and three represented the University of Silesia. The result is a report containing the conclusions of the consultation and a set of guidelines to assist in the development of the new Mariupol State University strategy.
Photo by Katarzyna Suchańska