Employees and students of the University of Gdańsk participated on Thursday in a meeting with the candidate for Rector for the term 2024-2028 - prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski. This was the candidate's eighth pre-election meeting with the university's academic community.
The meeting, announced in the election calendar, took place at 11.30 a.m. in the Prof. Janusz Sokolowski Aula in the University of Gdańsk Main Library and on Teams, where many more people gathered.
Candidate for Rector prof. Piotr Stepnowski thanked the meeting participants and briefly presented the passing term's most important activities and achievements. He also discussed the programme and plans for the 2024-2028 term. The Rector mentioned that all this information was published on the website: 'We wanted to show in these documents where the University of Gdańsk is today,' said prof. Piotr Stepnowski.
The Rector began with information about the planned raises we will receive if the state budget is adopted. According to the government's assumption, these are to be 30 per cent increases for academic staff and 20 per cent for administration.
Prof. Piotr Stepnowski then spoke, among other things, about measures related to staff and student mobility. He also discussed actions relating to the SEA-EU alliance and the Daniel Fahrenheit Association of Universities - about joint development plans (e.g., establishing an International Doctoral School or the federalisation of Gdańsk universities). The candidate emphasised the importance of the academic community's activities for common spaces, mentioning, for example, the ACB UG budget, the Student and Doctoral Activity Centre initiatives and many others.
The Rector mentioned programmes to support teaching and research, activate scientists, develop international cooperation, and encourage the university's academic community, including the administration, to take advantage of development paths.
An essential point in the activities of a modern university is computerisation, and this was emphasised by the candidate, reporting on the replacement of several hundred computer sets in the faculties and the introduction of IT mechanisms where possible, which is not always an easy process at the beginning, but one that is necessary as it is ultimately intended to improve work, service to students and doctoral students and communication between all areas at the university.
Speaking about plans, Prof. Piotr Stepnowski also emphasised that one of the most important tasks of the upcoming term is to focus on issues related to academic teaching: ‘It is pointed out that today, we are not able to predict 50% of the names of the professions that will be practised in 10 years' time, which means that half of the qualifications and competences that will be needed in 10 years' time are unknown to us. So how do we design academic didactics, which has its inertia, which is in a specific cycle, which is known to have to guard this fundamental role of the university, which is on the one hand to teach fundamental issues, and on the other hand to meet technological challenges? Such as, for example, mechanisms using learning with the support of artificial intelligence - perceived not only as a threat of unethical actions but also as a huge opportunity to use these tools wisely for building competencies of the future.’
Prof. Piotr Stepnowski also mentioned, among other things, changes in cooperation with the socio-economic environment and policies in this area.
In the second part of the meeting, participants had the opportunity to ask questions of the Candidate. It was asked how the Ministry's grant for renovating dormitories recently awarded to our university would be used. The Rector emphasised that this grant, like any other of its kind, is very important and helpful for us and will be used for the ongoing renovation of dormitories, and in the near future, we will apply for funding for the general renovation and reconstruction of dormitory No. 9 in Sopot, which we want to bring back into use for students.
The candidate was also asked about improving the quality of service for students and doctoral students, and here, the Rector indicated that improvements in this area are being consulted with, among others, the Student and Doctoral Activity Centre. A question was asked about the solutions envisaged for retiring or already retired employees, in response to which the Candidate informed, among other things, about the social fund available to retired employees, the establishment of a Professors' Club and an Alums Club, which are to fulfil just such a role - the continuation of cooperation and the maintenance of employees' bonds with the university. A question was also raised about what lies ahead in the coming term within the Fahrenheit University Alliance. Here, Prof. Piotr Stepnowski reported that the federation of universities responds precisely to the needs of the region, the Metropolitan Area: ‘The environment recognises the enormous potential of the federation, and I hope that the Act on the Metropolitan Area Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot will be processed together with the federation changes. The next step will be establishing the federation based on these decisions, but guaranteeing that we retain our autonomy in every respect,' stressed Prof. Piotr Stepnowski. ‘We will further define the map of activities - when, for example, we will integrate doctoral schools and start joint studies.’
Lastly, the candidate prof. Piotr Stepnowski thanked everyone for their participation in the meeting and the questions.
The Candidate still has 3 more meetings ahead of him: with the community of the Faculty of Biology, the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics.
Information about the meetings and the Candidate's plans: read here.