Two new Faculties are in development at the University of Wrocław
With a request of forming two new Faculties at the University of Wrocław from 1st of September 2024: Faculty of Modern Languages and Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies, Dean of the Faculty of Letters reached out to Rector of University of Wrocław. On 20th of December 2023, Senate of the University of Wrocław positively considered this proposition.
Subsequent formal steps are ahead of us. The preordain of Rector about creating new Faculties within structure of the University of Wrocław will be put out in the beginning of 2024.
As a result of ringfencing two new Faculties from current structures of the Faculty of Letters: Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures and Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies, three units will be developed. It means that there will be 12 faculties (currently there are 10).
Today in Faculty of Letters function four Boards of scientific disciplines: Literary Studies, Linguistics, Polish Studies along with Social Communication and Media Studies.
All of the Faculties formed after division could fulfill a condition which is written in Statute of the University of Wrocław (forming a faculty is only allowed in case when at least one board of scientific disciplines will be able to function in a faculty, executing eligibilities to confer the degree of doctor in at least one discipline).
On 20th of December 2023 during Senate’s of the University of Wrocław sitting, Dean of Faculty of Letters prof. Arkadiusz Lewicki presented to senators the genesis of division and benefits which will be carried after forming two new faculties.
Conversations considering the division of Faculty of Letters took place among staff members of the Faculty of Letters for a dozen or so years, however none of multiple conceptions were achieved until now. Last attempt was taken up in academic year 2022/2023. In December 2022, first meeting has taken place where all of the staff members of the Faculty of Letters were invited where initial conceptions of possible division were discussed. Over the next months, process of consultations were in session, held by different circles, especially by dean-directorial college.
In April 2023, a survey was conducted among all of the staff members of the Faculty, divided into two groups: academics and administration workers. In academics group, 70% of people took part in the survey. In favor of the division, 247 interviewees spoke up, against this conception were 35 people and 33 people abstained from voting.
Among administration workers 69% of people took part in the survey, amid them 35 people were on for the division, 11 were against it, 11 abstained from voting.
In April another meeting took place where staff members of the Faculty of Letters were reinvited.
After this meeting, two Institutes: Institute of Journalism and Social Communication and Institute of Information and Media Studies put forward a proposal about development of the Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies from 1st of September 2024 to Rector of the University of Wrocław.
Six other units: Institute of English Studies, Institute of Romance Studies, Institute of Slavic Studies, Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Chair of Dutch Studies and Taube Chair of Jewish Studies, put forward a proposal about development of the Faculty of Modern Languages to Rector of the University of Wrocław.
Two remaining Institutes: Institute of Polish Studies and Institute of German Studies settled together that they want to stay in the Faculty of Letters.
On 13th of June 2023, an extraordinary sitting of Board of Faculty’s meeting took place, with the Rector of the University of Wrocław being present, where the Board of Faculty made a decision to second both proposals.
In the most important Universities in Poland exist various administrative divisions of units performing studies in disciplines which are assigned to the Faculty of Letters. As an example, at the University of Warsaw exist: Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies; Faculty of Applied Linguistics (Institute of Specialised and Intercultural Communication, Institute of Applied Linguistics, Institute of Russian Studies, Department of Belarusian Studies, Institute of Cultural Studies of Central and Eastern Europe , Institute of Ukrainian Studies); Faculty of Modern Languages (Institute of English Studies, Institute of German Studies, Institute of Romance Studies, Institute of Iberian and Ibero-American Studies, Department of Italian Studies, Department of Hungarian Studies, Department of Formal Linguistics); Faculty of Oriental Studies (Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Chair of South Asia Studies, Chair of African Languages and Cultures, Chair of Japanese Studies, Department of Egyptology, Department of Hebrew Studies, Department of Iranian Studies, Department of European Islam Studies, Department of Korean Studies, Department of Sinology, Department of Turkology and Inner Asian Peoples, Department of Antique East) and Faculty of Polish Studies (Institute of Polish Literature, Institute of Polish Language, Institute of Polish Culture, Institute of West and South Slavist, Institute of Classical Studies, Department of General Linguistics, East Asian Comparative Linguistics and Baltic Studies).
In Jagiellonian University in Kraków function: Faculty of Philology (Institute of English Studies, Institute of Germanic Studies, Institute of Classics, Institute of Romance Studies, Institute of Slavonic Studies, Institute of Eastern Slavonic Studies, Institute of Linguistics, Translation Studies and Hungarian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies); Faculty of Polish Studies and Faculty of Management and Social Communication (Institute of Journalism, Media and Social Communication, Institute of Economics, Finance and Management, Institute of Information Studies, Institute of Culture, Institute of Entrepreneurship, Institute of Applied Psychology, Institute of Public Affairs, Institute of Audiovisual Arts, Department of Computer Linguistics)
In Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań function: Faculty of English (Faculty offers majors such as: English Studies, Dutch Studies, English and Chinese Studies; English Studies: Literature and Culture as well as English Linguistics: Theories, Interfaces, Technologies); Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology (Institute of Polish and Classical Philology, Institute of Slavic Studies, Institute of Theater, Film, Multimedia and Audiovisual Arts), Faculty of Political Science and Journalism (Faculty conducts studies in five majors: Political Science, International Relations, Journalism and Social Communication, National Security and Public Governance and State Management); Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures (Institute of Ethnolinguistics, Institute of German Studies, Institute of Romance Studies, Institute of Russian and Ukrainian Studies, Institute of Applied Linguistics, Institute of Oriental Studies, Department of Linguistic Methodology, Department of Scandinavian Studies).
Precisely visible that all of the Academies form their structure by on their own and it’s difficult to find their common denominator.
Faculty of Letters in our University certainly is the biggest faculty at the University of Wrocław. Over 5,5k students study there (around 27% of all students of the University of Wrocław), there are 450 academics employed (25% of the University of Wrocław) as well as including administration workers there are 500 people. In comparison, in the whole University of Opole study close to seven thousand students and employed are a bit over 600 academics. Meaning that the Faculty of Letters has nearly the size of the University in the capital of Province, while the other in terms of amount of researchers, the Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Studies employs 175 less people than the Faculty of Letters work on over 35% of all the majors on which the University of Wrocław recruits.
Simultaneously however the size of faculty does not find reflection in Statute’s records or in everyday administrative practice. Although Faculty of Letters make up ¼ of the whole University of Wrocław, it is treated as 1/10, that is one of ten Faculties. In Senate of University of Wrocław, the Faculty of Letters gets 3 places from “professorial curia”, that is exactly the same as for example the Faculty of Chemistry or the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science where almost quadruple less workers are employed. Considering various prices, competitions, divisions of means, every faculty is able to present the same amount of nominations or applications, regardless of the amount of workers or students assigned to specific unit, which puts the Faculty of Letters , as definitely the largest Faculty, in a disadvantageous situation.
In comparison, Faculties which formerly formed the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, that is the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy currently employ around 320 academics but in case of former the Faculty of Natural Sciences, currently units (Faculty of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biotechnology and Faculty of Earth Sciences and Environmental Management) employ 326 academics which still is a lower number by almost 130 than current employment at the Faculty of Letters.
As the Dean of the Faculty of Letters prof. Arkadiusz Lewicki emphasized: An additional argument which advocates the division of the Faculty of Letters is its diversity.
Reform of higher education moved one of the disciplines (Social Communication and Media) to field of social studies, whereas the rest of the disciplines (Literary Studies, Linguistics and Polish Studies) stayed in the field of humanities. Individual units struggle with various problems: some of Institutes have SSR on a level above 25, others have this rate on a 4,5 level. This diversity stops development of some of the didactic majors, because general SSR WF still goes beyond required level which equals decrease in subsidy conveyed to the Faculty.
Challenges, which occur in modern world, force different types of changes as well. Significantly easier to make adjustments in smaller units, which are significantly more elastic, where decision-making processes aren’t multistage and structure management is more simple.
As a result of isolation from current structures of the Faculty of Letters two new Faculties: the Faculty of Modern Languages and the Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies will develop three units of (to a certain degree) an even structure. Two Institutes will stay at the Faculty of Letters: Institute of Polish Studies and Institute of German Studies. In the Faculty of Letters, which is designed this way, will work close to 150 academics (involving 22 nominal professors and 44 habilitated doctors), however, around 1400 students will be studying.
In the Faculty of Modern Languages will work around 225 people and around 1900 students will access the education.
Then the Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies will be one of the smallest faculties considering the amount of people employed because there will be only about 80, but in terms of amount of students it will be the 4th biggest faculty at the University of Wrocław because access to education there will have about 2000 people.
– Such a division seems to be the most balanced of the possible options – if only the Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies was islanded from Faculty of Letters, most of the problems in thus existing faculty wouldn’t be solved, which still would be the biggest faculty at the University of Wrocław –prof. Lewicki believes. – Then eventually the Faculty of Polish Studies would be a minor faculty with not quite extended incomes. That’s why proposition about linking and staying in Faculty of Letters by the Institute of Polish Studies and the Institute of German Studies needs to be considered optimal. Workers from both of the institutes are engaged in countless research projects connected to regional and Lower Silesian studies, together they are able to develop new majors, also they share the same building which isn’t completely meaningful.
Isolating two new faculties will have certain financial consequences. The cost of effective additives for 2 Dean’s offices and 2-3 vice-deans (4 vice-deans function at the Faculty of Letters, on 3 smaller faculties this number can be limited), should be sustainable by more efficient managing finances which on smaller faculty should be more effective. Seems like employment in administration of new faculties shouldn’t significantly increase as well, current administration workers at the Faculty of Letters should provide a capable staff for three lesser faculties. Without a doubt, development of two new job positions will be needed – financial proxies for deans in new Faculties but these positions would have to be created sooner or later because financial service of a faculty this big, which the Faculty of Letters currently is, in a longer perspective it’s not possible to be handled by one person, how it is at this moment.
Probably certain financial editions will require to furnish new spaces linked with guaranteeing administration staff new units but the costs aren’t enormous. Part of the rooms belonging to Faculty of Letters needs to be renovated or restored, which are inevitable, irregardless if the division will happen or not.
All of the specific matters will be taken care of by committees, which will be appointed in current Faculty of Letters after Rector’s of the University of Wrocław edict and they will frame detailed plan associated with the division of buildings, effects and legal issues linked to further stages of division in Faculty of Letters on two new business units.
Dean Arkadiusz Lewicki summarizes: The idea of dividing the Faculty of Letters was considered for a dozen or so years. In this moment, we managed to develop a formula of division which was favoured by majority of council members of faculty and an even bigger percentage of those who work at the Faculty of Letters that took part in the survey. The people, who will create a society of the University of Wrocław for the next couple of decades should have the largest influence on decisions like this. Size, diversity and structure of current Faculty of Letters give off that this Faculty, in a current form, ran out from a possibility of development.
As prof. Arkadiusz Lewicki states: I believe that the new structural form which originated because of the division, will allow more effective management, emancipate scientific and didactic potential and will be an impulse for development of new units.
On 20th of December 2023, Senate positively considered this proposition. Next formal steps ahead of us. Rector’s edict considering development of new Faculties within structure at the University of Wrocław – in the beginning of 2024.
From the proceedings of Senate on 20th of December 2023.
Translated by Wiktoria Dybek (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
