The IROs Forum Award for Professor Jerzy Buzek, September 25, 2023.

The IROs Forum – the network of international offices of higher education institutions, has been actively involved in the internationalization of higher education for over 15 years. An award has been established to recognize individuals who particularly support efforts in this area. Professor Jerzy Buzek is the laureate of the jubilee award, acknowledging his contribution to introducing Polish universities to European and global markets. We are pleased to personally present the award to Professor Buzek.

The award was presented on September 25, 2023, during the Distributed Energy Forum held in Krakow on September 25-26, 2023, at the Studio Club on the AGH University of Science and Technology Campus.

Standing with Ukraine!

We stand with Ukraine
Universities associated in the IROs Forum network help students, doctoral students and employees of Partner Universities from Ukraine. The IROs Forum academic community is also actively involved in humanitarian aid activities! #StandWithUkraine

INTERNATIONALIZATION IS A PHILOSOPHY,

iNTERNATIONALIZATION IS A PHILOSOPHY,
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF EDUCATION CHANGES THE WORLD FOR A BETTER

LET’S START!
Today we start our summit with the the IROs Forum Council meeting. Did you know that the last IROsF “live” meeting was held 547 days ago, which is 1 year, 5 months and 29 days. Five days after our meeting in March 2020 The World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The pandemic did not stop our activities, on the contrary – plenty was happening despite the fact that it was online.

Only in 2021 there were:

  • 7 meetings of IROsF members,
  • we organized 3 Coffees with IROsF (FRSE, CRASP The Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland , MEiN),
  • we participated in the meetings of the Committee for International Cooperation KRASP and the Comittee of “Stars of Internationalization” – Perspektywy Foundation;
  • we participated in 3 sessions of the conference “Foreign students in Poland 2021”.
  • Admission Officers and EWP working groups met 6 times,
  • we partnered 4 international conferences,
  • prepared a publication with NAWA Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange
  • recorded a KRASP podcast with “PRom”
  • we accepted 2 new members: Poznan University of Technology and Bialystok University of Technology.

We will summarize all these on-line events face-to face 😊 in the coming days in Krakow, but mainly we will talk about new plans, challenges and good practices during the pandemic.
As you can see, the time of the pandemic did not weaken international cooperation and our activities, but we have already missed each other a great deal and we look forward to our time together at AGH UST.

The third edition of IROs Forum Coffee

On the 1st of July the third edition of IROs Forum Coffee took place.

The special guest was Ms. Monika Poboży, Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The discussion concerned activities aimed at supporting Belarusian students in the recruitment and education in Poland and special scholarship programs.

The meeting was attended by 9 representatives of higher education institutions associated within the IROs Forum.

IROs Forum Coffee with the President of the CRASP International Affairs Committee – 30/04/2021

On the 30th of April 2021 took place a virtual meeting of IROs Forum representatives with the President of the CRASP International Affairs Committee, His Magnificence Prof. Jerzy Lis, Rector of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.

The fruitful discussion concerned, among others sustainable foreign policy or the issue of reevaluating the priorities of Polish universities in foreign academic cooperation after the post-pandemic period.

The President of IROs Forum, Mrs Marta Foryś, presented the challenges currently faced by Polish universities such as Erasmus Without Paper or the difficulties in obtaining visas by foreigners.

In order to take into account the voice of the community of people associated with the internationalization of Polish universities, Prof. Jerzy Lis suggested that IROs Forum should have its representative during the meetings of the CRASP International Affairs Committee. The aim of the Committee is to define the priorities of foreign cooperation for the next years. The representatives of IROs Forum declared their willingness to support CRASP in its intended activities related to building the brand of Polish higher education in the world.

IROs Forum at „Foreign students in Poland 2021” conference

The XV conference „Foreign students in Poland 2021” took place between 26th and 27th of April, 2021.

Within its frameworks this online event included 11 panel sessions with 40 speakers involved, as well as 2 special reports on internationalization and 2 gala awards: INTERSTUDENT 2021 – 11th edition of the competition for the best international student and STARS OF INTERNATIONALIZATION 2021 – 4TH edition of background award.

The conference organisers were: The Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (CRASP), Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences and “Perspektywy” Educational Foundation.

As every year, the IROs Forum representatives participated in this annual feast of higher education’s internationalization.

On the first day of the conference, during the joint session of IROs Forum and NAWA (Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange) related to challenges and good practises in the area of higher education’s internationalization, former IROs Forum President Mrs Dorota Maciejowska of Jagiellonian University (currently IROs Forum honorary member) and Mrs Katarzyna Baron-Lisiakiewicz – the Director of International Relations Office of Cracow University of Technology had an opportunity to present the conclusions of consultation workshops which took place in December 2020.

During the conference’s second day IROs Forum was represented by Mrs Ewa Kiszka – Head of the Department of Internationalization of Medical University of Gdańsk, who shared with the participants her experiences referring to virtual marketing in the area of foreigners’ recruitment process at the time of pandemic.

On the other hand IROs Forum President – Mrs Marta Foryś of AGH UST University of Science and Technology in Krakow was presenting new initiatives and actions initiated by IROs to support the internationalization of Polish higher education. She underlined the role of local networks of academical cooperation such as KUN Krakow Universities Network.

On behalf of IROs Forum we would like to thank the organizers sincerely for the invitation to join this spectacular event, whereas Mrs President Marta Foryś oraz IROs Forum members: Mrs Dorota Maciejowska, Mrs Katarzyna Baron-Lisiakiewicz and Mrs Ewa Kiszka for suitable representation and promotion of Our Network.

See you next year!