Jarosław Jastrzębski

The article describes the institution of the Professors’ General Meeting which constituted the highest collegial self-government body at universities in the Second Polish Republic. The basic formal and legal conditions for the functioning of the institution are described. The body of the article is divided into six parts. The introduction points to the unique nature of the General Meeting in the context of Polish academic legislation of the 20thcentury and the first decade of the 21st century as well as the grounds for commencing the research from the date of 15 September 1920. Subsequently, the system of public academic education is described, including the classifi cation of universities within the scope relevant for the subject of the research, and academic privileges considered unique in comparison with other research and education units are specifi ed. The second chapter discusses the institution of the Professors’ General Meeting and its three stages of development that can be identifi ed in the interwar period. The author also analyzes the member roster and its changes in time as well as the impact that the academic groups (teachers, administrative employees and students, including all ranks and categories) exercised upon the functioning of the university, comparing the 1920–1939 period and the Third Polish Republic. The next chapter describes the basic procedures of the Professors’ General Meeting. The further deliberations concern the detailed competences of the body with special emphasis put on the reduction of these competences and their classification in terms of dependence on or independence from the approval of the Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Education. Additionally, the specific character of the Professors’ General Meeting in one-faculty universities in 1933–1937 is also discussed since the rights of that body in such cases were extended by the responsibilities of the faculty council and the university senate. The article is concluded with a summary of basic facts from the history of the institution of the Professors’ General Meeting at public universities in the interwar Poland and an attempt to explain the conspicuous tendencies in its development and the reasons for this development.

The aim of the article is to present the changes introduced by the so-called Jędrzejewicz’s reform of 1933 to the competences of the national authorities in the field of higher education system and to compare these changes with the previous state of affairs. Special emphasis is placed upon the growth of supervisory competencies of the Minister of Religious Beliefs and Public Enlightenment. The paper uses source documents and is fundamentally based on the analysis of the national legal acts of 1920–1939, supplemented by references to a few statutes of selected academic institutions and reference texts. The paper is divided into fifteen chapters. It starts with a brief outline of the national higher education system and the classification of schools (to the extent adequate for the main subject of the paper). The legal basis for the higher education system and the political background of the reform are also described. Further chapters focus on the elements used in the process of strengthening the prerogatives of the authorities in relation to academic institutions and the importance of such prerogatives for academic autonomy and freedom of science. The following issues have been considered of key significance: the possibility of suspending an entire school or part of it; restriction of a university’s freedom in electing vice-chancellors; strengthening the supervision of collegial and self-government authorities (by means of the general assembly of professors, senate, and the board of the faculty); changes to the rules of setting up and closing down organisational units and professorial chairs; special status of military students. The final part of the paper provides a comprehensive summary in which the author highlights the positive aspects of the reform as well as the restrictions it places on academic freedom. As far as the latter is concerned, the most important changes are: the authority granted to the Minister of Religious Beliefs and Public Enlightenment to temporarily close down an entire school, or some part of it; the necessity of obtaining state approval for electing both a vice-chancellor and pro-vice chancellor, and for passing regulations of the senate and board of the faculty; transferring the authority of appointing directors of research units and of closing down chairs to the national level, which was a serious blow to academic freedom. considerably to the dissolution of the Commission. What is more, Poland did not ratify the Barcelona Convention

The main goal of the article is to present the differences in the academic status of regular students and auditors in the II Polish Republic as well as the factors justifying the functioning of this category of students in the interwar period. The paper has a source character and is based fundamentally on the analysis of the national normative acts. The article has been divided into five chapters. In the introduction, the author discusses the legal foundations of the functioning of academic institutions in the II Polish Republic as well as the system of the contemporary academic education. Subsequently, the paper presents a classification of students (regular students, auditors and doctoral students) and their status within the university. Special attention is devoted in the paper to the difference between the above two categories of students: particularly as regards their participation in classes, the possibility of taking exams and obtaining academic and professional degrees. In summation the author presents the systemic premises justifying the existence of auditors in the period of the II Polish Republic as well as the reasons why this institution is no longer needed in the III Polish Republic.