AGH UST, SGH, and UWr create Interuniversity Climate Academy

Interuniversity Climate Academy (ICA, Polish: Międzyuczelniana Akademia Klimatu, MAK) is a one-of-a-kind initiative of three universities with three different academic profiles – technology, economy, and humanities. Additionally, these institutions can count on strong support from the banking and business sectors.

The agreement was signed by the rectors of the three universities:

• AGH UST – Professor Jerzy Lis
• SGH – Dr hab. Piotr Wachowiak, SGH Assoc. Professor
• UWr – Professor Przemysław Wiszewski

The ICA is a comprehensive offer intended for professionals who want to expand their knowledge and practical skills in relation to climate change. The initiative was developed for city clerks, central and local government administration officials, business representatives, service and production companies, including consulting, law, and finance firms.

‘Climate change and its implications are currently one of the main challenges of science. We want to face these challenges and offer solutions at multiple levels. The Interuniversity Climate Academy is an extremely significant initiative that meets the needs of today. The AGH UST input to the postgraduate programmes of study will include, among other things, technical aspects of adaptation to climate change. We want to educate the participants about the consequences of current changes for the quality of our lives or the necessity of fulfilling our obligations to the world and the EU. Another key aspect for our university is close cooperation with representatives of business, financial institutions, and non-government organisations that deal with climate change on a daily basis and can constitute a valuable source of support for us. The ICA is made up of three very good scientific centres. Each university brings characteristic merit-based values into the mixture. Therefore, our programmes of study will be developed by excellent engineers, economists, and humanists. I’m convinced that our educational offer will prove appealing, engaging, and exciting for all attendees from all kinds of sectors and branches, and especially for those who incessantly work to combat one of the greatest civilisational challenges – climate change’, said Professor Jerzy Lis, the AGH UST Rector.

According to the agreement, the leadership of the consortium will be transferred to subsequent parties in rotation; each university will take the lead for one edition of postgraduate studies. The first to take the floor is the SGH, followed by the AGH UST, and the University of Wrocław.

‘I am overjoyed that SGH Warsaw School of Economics will inaugurate the activity of the consortium. The ICA was developed for people who irrepressibly think of ways to counteract climate change and adapt to its implications. Currently, the cooperation between institutions, companies from various sectors, and universities, especially when climate crisis becomes a fact, seems essential, inevitable even. We cannot deal with climate change on our own; hence the idea of a consortium. Our three universities follow to the letter the UN recommendations, namely that climate education is a key element of global actions against climate change – our greatest civilisational challenge’, emphasised Professor Piotr Wachowiak, the SGH Rector.

‘Climate change is a global challenge, one of the greatest today. This is something science has to face if we are to survive as a species. From January 2022, as University of Wrocław, we are part of the Arqus European University Alliance. By developing a European university, we strengthen our international presence. We also find it very important to cooperate with the best Polish universities to solve and teach how to solve global problems here and now in Poland. Undoubtedly, the best Polish technical university is the AGH UST; then, the SGH is the top brand among schools of economics. The collaboration that we are developing through the ICA ensures the highest-quality educational offer and research practice for the three universities’, noted Professor Przemysław Wiszewski, the UWr Rector.

ICA classes will be organised by all three co-creators of the initiative and conducted by carefully selected teachers, including prominent specialists, guest lecturers from other higher education institutions, and business representatives.

‘Initiatives such as the ICA are a perfect example of how to create a modern lifelong education offer for specialists in cooperation with the business sector. In the era of climate change and its implications, such a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, represented by the ICA, is much needed. Additionally, participation in the initiative will certainly constitute real support for people who deal with the issue on a daily basis. It makes me proud that our Bank was invited to cooperation and was given the opportunity to participate in the promotion and development of such a valuable interuniversity educational project’, said Wojciech Hann, chairperson of the board of BOŚ Bank.

‘As chairperson of the Ecol-Group board and a member of the University Council of Gdańsk University of Technology, I induced the discussion on interuniversity climate education in March 2021. The discussion about the project was taken up by numerous university representatives, especially Wojciech Hann (chairperson of the board of BOŚ Bank and chairperson of the UWr University Council) and Szymon Malinowski (‘Nauka o Klimacie’ website and University of Warsaw). Since our first meetings, we have been taking into account the interdisciplinary nature of climate sciences and the interrelatedness of environmental, engineering, and economic aspects connected thereto. This is how we have selected a team: Tomasz Bergier (AGH UST), Dorota Niedziółka (SGH), Maciej Kryza (UWr) who took the gauntlet of establishing Poland’s first Interuniversity Climate Academy. Today, we see the effects of their hard work and we are all satisfied with the conclusion of this agreement. At the same time, we declare our continuous support for this initiative through our own foundations […], as well as through participation in the proceedings of the Advisory Council’, said Wojciech Falkowski.

The goal of the ICA is to provide attendees with comprehensive interdisciplinary knowledge, develop a broader perspective, and combine an all-encompassing view with industrial professionalism. Such a model of education will allow the attendees to establish inter-sector contacts or work out common understanding of the issues discussed. An important element of the programme will be the final theses, characterised by an elaborate and interdisciplinary nature, featuring a significant practical aspect (project- and problem-oriented learning). The exceptional asset of the programmes will be the possibility to realise diplomas in interdisciplinary teams of several people, for example, a financier, engineer, and humanist, which will contribute to deeper analyses and practical communication between various sectors.

The agreement was concluded for an unspecified period of time.