From Underground to International the Politics of University Language
The trend of English-medium programs at modern Polish universities is a notable success story, but the language of the lecture theatres has been dictated by political change. Long before Erasmus exchanges got underway, Poland’s academic system was altered by partitions, uprisings, and foreign decrees.
Just like elsewhere in Europe, ancient universities founded by Roman Catholic orders such as those in Kraków, Wilno (Vilius) or Lvów (Lviv) taught in Latin. However, during the Enlightenment, Poland’s universities had a shake-up, with the establishment of the world’s first ministry of education in 1773. Led by reformers like Hugo Kołłątaj, the Commission for National Education modernized teaching and officially replaced Latin with Polish.
This period of Polish-language education was cut short by the partitions of Poland. At the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th century, the tuition language in universities was dictated by the Russian, Prussian and Austrian imperial powers that took control. In Kraków’s Jagiellonian University, founded back in 1364, German was installed as the language for lectures. Meanwhile, further east, 15th Century Wilno (Vilnius) and 16th-Century Lwów (Lviv) universities had to undergo similar linguistic changes.
Wilno University enjoyed a brief Polish-language era under early Russian rule, only to be closed and later Russified following anti-tsarist Polish uprisings. The current Lithuanian system has now brushed off Russian. By contrast, records show that Lwów eventually secured regional autonomy under Austrian rule; its vibrant Polish-language teaching traditions endured from the 1840’s all the way until the Soviet takeover in 1939. The University is now proudly Ukrainian.
Warsaw’s main academic institutions emerged from this intricate political web. The University of Warsaw was founded in 1816 by an imperial decree from Tsar Alexander, alongside the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). Decades later, Emperor Nicholas II Polytechnic, now known in English as Warsaw University of Technology, opened in 1898 under strict imperial dominance with only a short window of Polish tuition. Teaching in Polish started again only in1918, once Poland regained its independence.
The biggest disaster for Polish higher education happened during World War II. Nazi German occupiers banned it in a bid to wipe out the Polish intelligentsia. Professors were arrested, sent to camps, or executed. In response, surviving academics launched secret, underground networks. They revived the spirit of the 19th-century „Flying University”, holding clandestine lectures at great risk to keep Polish culture and science alive.
In Soviet times, foreign students from communist or developing countries received education grants to attend Polish universities, but had to undergo stringent Polish language training in their first year.
Today, universities teach over 100,000 foreign students in both Polish and English. The National Agency for Academic Exchange estimates 100 universities now offer over 900 fully English-taught programs in both state and private universities (which emerged from the nineties onwards). Fees range from €2,000 to €8,000 annually. This contrasts with the public sector’s traditional full-time Polish-language tracks, which are free for domestic and EU citizens or for documented members of the Polish diaspora.
Bearing in mind the history, the internationalisation of education in Poland is only positive. After centuries of struggle to preserve their language, Poland’s universities are welcoming the world entirely on their own terms.
