The Erasmus experience

Life can be depressing. But when you go on Erasmus exchange you realize, that there are hundreds of poeple across the continent with the same problems as you have, same lifes. You meet them, eat with them, spend time together, travel, do shopping with them, study... and when at some point you sit in a room, you realize that every person is of different nationality. It suprises you that you haven't noticed earlier on. But who cares?

I'm him, him and her... I'm polish, scottish, english, irish, german, italian, spanish, portugese, romanian, bulgarian, hungarian, finnish, turkish, czech, sloviakian, french, lithuanian, croatian and american... I'm not one but several. I'm like Europe. I'm all of that. I'm a real mess!

Thanks for good and bad moments. For cheering me up, for all the meetings, dinners and trips. Whether we had a chance to see each other every day or only had a wee chat somewhere, I will miss you all.

I dedicate this video to everyone, not only people from the Room 216 (they know ;)), but also Aynur, Boriana, Courtney, Ania, Lucy, Eva, Kristyna, Masa, Adi, Martina, Aydan, Danny,  Rita, Lea, Katka, Adriana, Monica, Angela, Gokhan, Juan, Peter, Lucas, Tadas, Thea, Mina, Racheal, Robyn, Dunia, Aaron, Will, Anastasia, Amelia. Ivo, Edgar, Neil and everyone else. Thanks!

The University of Wroclaw controversy...

The Baron.

The ones who liked his lectures, often hate him after exam period. The exams are few hours marathons, which even half of the course fail at first attempt. He is said to be rude and even vulgar. He even made one female student cry during the class. But apologised afterwards since it was 'The Art of Negotiation' classwork. This is what I have heard. He is 38 years old and calls himself 'the Baron' in the university hierarchy and does not want to live in mediaeval anymore. Andrzej Dybczyński treats erasmus and international students in the same way that he treats Polish students. He calls us lazy parasites and laughs at national and cultural stereotypes and apparently has a great fun. He does not comply to any standards of political correctness. However, after the fun part he becomes absolutely serious. I remember after a lecture with him, me and my friend shivered for few minutes, wondering whether it was him or cold wind in the corridor. He is a controversial character not only due to his extraordinary methods of teaching but his article in Gazeta Wyborcza dated 28.01.2011 in which he criticised officials of the university and provoked a series of articles concerning the state of University of Wrocław and polish higher education. Since the debate is conducted in polish I will attempt to present main points of his criticism and the debate which according to the newspaper is the biggest criticism the university have ever experienced.

The University of Wroclaw.

There is a tradition that every single rector of the University of Wroclaw is to be portrayed after the end of his term. Recent debate at university concerns the portrait of the previous rector prof. Leszek Pacholski who wanted to be portrayed without rector's uniform - just in a white shirt and black trousers. The specialists, historians, physicians, sociologist and other university professors and doctors comment on this issue in mass media, criticising or emphasizing the symbolicism of this decision. Dybczyński feels embarrassed that rector's portrait is the main problem of one of the greatest universities in Poland.

Professor Klaus Bachmann, who seems one of Dybczyński's allies, has written that the portait debate is not only symbolic. Polish universitites are very weak on  the international stage. Even universitites from other baltic states do better in rankings. We cannot blame communism all the time, these are last 20 years of neglect. The worse university, department, institute is, the more byzantine rituals and more patriarchal structure it has. There are lots of students who deeply believe in great wisdom of their lecturers, believing they are the embodiments of  the greatest philosophers world has ever had. Their belief is profound... at least until they go for Erasmus exchange.

Why is that? According to Bachmann most of the staff at University of Wroclaw have been there for last 30-40 years just swaping 'seats'. Usually doctor at the university has BA, MA and PhD from the same university at which he works now. It is a small family which rules the institutes, departments and whole University. Social mobility hardly exists. Even open contest for positions are constructed in a way that one specific person can win.

Dybczyński argues that University of Wroclaw, like most universities in Poland, is a mixture of feudalism, capitalism and socialism. Mixture of the worst features of these systems. University maintains feudal dependence between young staff and professors, however seniors do not look after their vassals. Capitalist performance is expected when the salaries are rather socialist. Socialist bureaucratic patterns are preserved, while socialist privileges have been abandoned. In his hierarchy students are just peasants and are treated respectivelly. No one would imagine to punish lecturer if he did not turn up for a lecture, not even mentioning not replying for an email. Dybczyński's theory of hierarchy proved to be valid couple of days after his article, when current rector professor Bojarski sent an official order to the deans of faculties to delegate one person for a trip to Smoleńsk (place where polish president's Kaczyński plane crashed in 2010). Many of them refused, pointing out that this has nothing to do with university statute and they are not legally obliged to do so.

However, hundreds of supportive letters and emails Dybczyński has received show that he is not alone. 'Every university has it's own Dybczynski' says one of the article concerning debate. Poland is still a young democracy and changes are needed and with some effort and good intentions they will be implemented. Of course Dybczyński's provocation was planned, he is a professional negotiator after all. We will see the effects of it in next few years.

The Erasmus student.

I have never undertaken studies in Poland before. My high school never expected me to call teachers per professor as it was expected and practised in the best high schools in the city. In english language we do not use forms Mrs and Mr even in formal situations in spoken language very often. We have never had an opening ceremony with rituals at the beginning of the first year. 

From organisational point of view - I mean organisation of international studies - in my opinion, University of Wroclaw is almost a disaster. I had an informal conversation with one of the professors and she apologised me because I had never had chance to register for her modules. Only Faculty of Social Sciences has plenty of modules conducted in english, so other faculties send students to study International Relations and Political Science regardless of the field they are interested in. One girl who came here to study History of Art, but the only modules available in english were "Introduction to History of Art" and "Modern indian culture"... We did not get the plastic ID cards as polish students have, but paper ones. We have to register to each library separately. I cannot say anything bad about teaching level. My modules consist only of those conducted in english which I have to say are on pretty high level, not only because I have taken them from master's programme. It is hard to judge after one week of teaching though. I emigrated to Scotland two years ago and have been socialised into Scottish / British higher education culture. I can understand why polish universities work how they work but I know that from a foreigner perspective it might look ridiculous.

I am Polish. In Dybczyński's hierarchy I might be a merchant from abroad just visitng the country with special privilages. I am glad I have had the chance to study in Scotland and go for Erasmus exchange to Poland. I struggle to be an 'in-betweener' but I am also happy to be that way. I have always liked extraordinary teachers and teaching methods and this is why I like dr Dybczyński's lectures and classes. I admire his contempt for political correctness and courage to express his concers about University.

Links to the articles:

http://wroclaw.gazeta.pl/wroclaw/1,35771,9022221,Jestem_baronem__Nie_chce_dluzej_zyc_w_sredniowieczu.html

http://wroclaw.gazeta.pl/wroclaw/1,35771,9026007,Bachmann__To_nie_krol_jest_nagi__lecz_arystokracja.html

http://wroclaw.gazeta.pl/wroclaw/1,35771,9133022,Dr_Dybczynski_o_uniwersytecie__Chce_lepszego_dzisiaj.html