International Relations Office

The political transformation in 1989 caused temporary difficulties in the University's policy concerning international relations. New agreements had to be signed with partner universities from the former socialist countries. The collaboration with institutions in Western Europe and the USA was successfully continued. The fact that the Jagiellonian University had its own guest houses facilitated the accommodation of foreign visitors. The collaboration with RUB developed.    

The JU signed agreements with the University of Heidelberg and the University of Cologne.

The Jagiellonian Library began collaboration with the Library in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. The agreement with The Johns Hopkins University, The Bologna Center was renewed. Moreover, collaboration started with the State University of New York at Buffa­lo (in law and history), with the University of Hartford – the creation of the Jagiellonian School of Business, with the Guelph University, Canada (social sciences, biology, chemistry, physics, geography) and with the Univer­sity of Copenhagen (English and Germanic philology, political sciences, sociology, geography and environmental biology).

The academic year 1990/91 brought further development of JU contacts with foreign academic centres and good collaboration within the existing agreements.

Several JU units jointed TEMPUS Joint European Projects. The University became a member of COIMBRA Group and Utrecht Network.

In May 1992, the Jagiellonian University signed an agreement with the Sasakawa Foundation in Tokyo, joining The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF). Since 1993/1994, 273 JU graduate students have received SYLFF grants for short and long stays at foreign universities.

The structure of the International Relations Office, and consequently the University's international policy, was reorganised in 1993/94. The aim of the changes was to adjust to the new economic-financial conditions of the country, decentralization of the administration and finances, simplification of bilateral exchange formalities and undertaking news tasks related to new international research and educational programmes. All matters concerning outgoing visits were transferred to travel agencies.  

In October 1995, the Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies offering fee-paying courses in English was opened (with 16 students and 12 TEMPUS students). There were new agreements with the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Techno­logy, the University of Exeter, South Bank University, London, the University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, and Boston College, USA. The number of joint research and educational projects realised by the JU reached 42 (15 Tempus JEPs).

The JU IRO began editing Guide for International Students and Newsletter. On 1.10.1996 the Polish Academic Information Centre in Buffalo as a joint endeavour between SUNY at Buf­falo and the UJ was initiated. Another project was the creation of visiting professor scheme at the JU, coordinated by the Polish-German Academic Society and financed by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung from Essen. Between 1997/98 and 2007/2008 the post of visiting proffessors was offered to 38 professors from the universities in Erlangen, Hamburg, Bochum, Berlin, Marburg, Augsburg, Heidelber­g, Oldenburg, Mün­ster, Frankfurt/Main, Potsdam, Tubingen, Konstanz, Giessen, Kiel, Jena, Würzburg, Gottingen, Hanover, Bayreuth, Dresden and Cologne.

Another significant development occurred in November 1997 when the Jagiellonian University joined the Socrates/Erasmus Programme and signed its first agreements concerning student and staff mobility with 30 EU universities. On 8 October 1999, the JU IRO organised the first welcome meeting for international students, which gathered over 200 participants. From 1999, it organised Christmas meetings and New York's concerts for international staff and students.