Involving foreign visiting professors in the teaching process at the University of Gdańsk is a permanent element of building the university’s international character. At the Faculty of Economics alone, as many as 12 international cooperation agreements on including visiting professors in the educational process have been implemented within the ProUG project.

Between 2018 and 2023, the Faculty of Economics participated in the project ‘PROgramme for the Development of the University of Gdańsk (ProUG)’, implemented under the Operational Programme Knowledge Education Development (Polish Program Operacyjny Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój – POWER).

‘Activities in pursuit of the internationalisation of the teaching offer were carried out in the project’s initial phase under challenging conditions related to pandemic restrictions. Despite this, it was possible to deliver many fascinating lectures and workshops on various economic subjects,’ says the faculty coordinator of the ProUG project, dr Magdalena Markiewicz.

The lectures were conducted in the form of obligatory and optional subjects in the courses of Economics and International Economic Relations, including the International Business specialisation, in a stationary, online or hybrid version.

Among the 12 teaching programmes implemented, nine agreements involved visiting professors from European universities from seven countries (Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, and Portugal), and three agreements involved visiting professors from the USA.

In the summer semester of the 2019/2020 academic year and in the winter semester of 2020/2021, lectures entitled Innovative market research were given by prof. Luis Alberto Casado Aranda from the University of Granada, Spain (subject supervision: prof. dr hab. Przemysław Borkowski, UG).

In the 2020/2021 summer semester, four visiting professors from foreign universities planned and conducted a series of lectures on compulsory and optional subjects. The classes covered a diverse range of topics selected according to the specialisations and interests of the students of the Faculty of Economics.

In the summer semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, a series of lectures and consultations were scheduled by five visiting professors from foreign universities, who taught the following subjects for the course of Economics and the course of International Economic Relations:

• Consumers’ Behaviour Towards Environmental Protection, prof. Sara Sousa, Coimbra Business School, Portugal, March – April 2022 (subject supervision: dr hab. Anna Maria Nikodemska-Wołowik, prof. UG, dr hab. Joanna Kuczewska, prof. UG);
• Entrepreneurship: Theory, Mindset and Modelling, prof. Dawid Kee, USA (subject supervision: dr hab. Piotr Zientara, prof. UG, dr hab. Joanna Kuczewska, prof. UG);
• European Integration Economics, prof. Rasa Daugeliene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania (supervision and subject matter: dr hab. Stanisław Umiński, prof. UG, dr Aleksandra Borowicz, dr Maciej Krzemiński);
• Managing organisations and organisational change, prof. Niksa Alfirević, University of Split, Croatia (supervision and subject matter: dr hab. Joanna Kuczewska, prof. UG);
• Marketing for Managers, prof. Robert Zich, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic (supervisor: dr hab. Joanna Pietrzak, prof. UG, dr Magdalena Markiewicz);
• Project planning and management, prof. Srećko Goic, University of Split, Croatia, March – April 2022 (supervisor: dr hab. Joanna Kuczewska, prof. UG).

A total of 720 hours were completed with students through lectures, workshops, e-learning and thematic consultations in desktop, online or hybrid versions.

Approximately 300 Faculty of Economics students studying Economics and International Economic Relations have benefited from the exciting and varied forms of education, including lectures from foreign visiting professors.

‘The ProUG project has resulted in the internationalisation of teaching at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Gdańsk, as well as the establishment of many relationships for developing research and teaching cooperation in the future. This has provided a basis for strengthening further cooperation and academic exchange, building new paths for scientific and didactic development, as well as conducting joint research,’ adds dr Magdalena Markiewicz.