Information on the negative stance of the UWr Senate towards federation
On 21 June 2023, the Senate of the University of Wrocław gave a negative opinion on the creation of a federation with the Medical University. The UWr Senate’s vote was preceded by faculty consultations. The Faculty Councils had the opportunity to discuss and express their positions on the issue. All Faculty Councils voted against the merger (one council out of 10 did not pass a resolution on the matter). It should be emphasised that bilateral cooperation between the universities is ongoing and will continue to develop regardless of the negative opinion on the merger.
The law on higher education does not encourage universities to merge, according to UWr rector prof. Robert Olkiewicz. – UWr has the status of a research university, and consolidation could expose us not only to the loss of this status but also to the loss of some of our scientific staff and grants. We have been cooperating with the Medical University for a long time and we do not need to formalise this in the form of a federation.
For the pre-consolidation process of Wrocław’s universities, UWr received a grant from the ministry – 5 million PLN. Of this, it spent just under 900,000 PLN. The personnel costs of eight working teams and a steering committee made up of representatives of both universities, headed by the Rector of UWr (who waived his remuneration for his work in the steering committee meetings) amounted to 780,000 PLN. The energy audit, on the other hand, cost 100 000 PLN.
A due diligence report, commissioned in a tender won by UJK in Kielce, was to cost over 1,100,000 PLN gross. However, the report was not accepted by the steering committee and UWr did not pay for it.
Following reports of the alleged involvement of artificial intelligence in the creation of the report, the Rector of UWr appointed a team of IT specialists to investigate its actual involvement in the report’s production. The team’s opinion did not clearly indicate the use of artificial intelligence in this analysis.
The UJK report was sent back to the contractor so that it could fill in the relevant gaps. Unfortunately, despite the completion, it still did not meet the tender conditions and for this it was not accepted by the steering committee. And it was not a question of artificial intelligence but of other shortcomings.
It is worth emphasising that the decision on whether or not to merge the universities of Wrocław and Wroclaw Medical University was made – not by the report or its absence – but by the senates of both universities. The report was only an element of the entire pre-merger process.
The unused funds of around 4 million PLN from the ministerial grant will be returned.
Katarzyna Górowicz-Maćkiewicz, spokeswoman of the University of Wrocław
