On 28th September the University of Warsaw and the University of Cambridge will be celebrating the official inauguration of the strategic partnership between the two institutions.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the Rector of the University of Warsaw, Professor Marcin Pałys, Dr. Jarosław Gowin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland and Prof. Arkady Rzegocki, the Ambassador of Poland to the United Kingdom will take part in the official inauguration. During the ceremony Dr. Stanley Bill will deliver a lecture about the Polish Studies at the University of Cambridge.

The University of Warsaw and the University of Cambridge have signed on 14^th July an agreement regarding the Cambridge Polish Studies. The signing marked the grant of 15 million złotys (approximately £3.1 million), allocated to the University of Warsaw by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, to endow in perpetuity a Polish Studies Programme at Cambridge.

The programme will provide opportunities for research collaboration, as well as teaching in Polish language, literature and culture. The programme’s research output will be complemented by a series of high-profile public events that will aim to stimulate research in Polish culture and society, and promote greater understanding of Poland’s role in European history as well as its position as a rising economic power.

The new initiative was built on the success of the existing four-year pilot programme in Polish Studies at the University, led by Dr Stanley Bill of Cambridge’s Department of Slavonic Studies and supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), the M.B. Grabowski Fund, the Zdanowich Fund and Cambridge’s School of Arts and Humanities.

The agreement was concluded with the support of Poland’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education.