The National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) is launching the “Solidarity with Ukraine” program allowing Ukrainian students and doctoral students to study in Poland, continue preparation of their doctoral dissertations or participate in other forms of education. The allocated funds will allow financing over 1,300 scholarships, including medicine or medicine and dentistry courses.
The program is addressed to universities supervised by the Ministry of Education and Science or the Ministry of Health, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Łukasiewicz Network, as well as research institutes that are ready to accept Ukrainian refugees, providing them with the opportunity to continue their studies, prepare a doctoral dissertation, and complete language courses free of charge or other preparatory courses in the period from March 1 to September 30 this year.
The institution that receives funds under the program will not charge the student or doctoral student any fees and will pay the scholarship holders PLN 1,500 every month. In addition, it will have to provide them with psychological and legal care related to education needs. The funds allocated to the implementation of the “Solidarity with Ukraine” program will allow financing the education of over 1,300 scholarship holders, including those in the fields of medicine or medicine and dentistry.
Aid activities under “Solidarity with Ukraine” are largely based on the “Solidarity with Belarus” initiative launched in 2020, which turned out to be an extremely valuable experience today.
NAWA director Dr Grażyna Żebrowska emphasized that research and education of students should be carried out in a democratic world free from wars. “Today, academic activity in Ukraine has been suspended, and we as the academic community have important tasks to provide including unity, solidarity and enabling the continuity of education and research for Ukrainian students and scientists who had to leave their country. The “Solidarity with Ukraine” program reflects our willingness to help. In addition, in the coming days, the NAWA team will be joined by the citizens of Ukraine, whose specialist knowledge will allow us to operate the program at the highest level”.
The program is addressed to citizens of Ukraine who came to Poland no earlier than February 24, 2022, and who were students of Ukrainian universities in the current academic year or who completed doctoral studies in Ukraine. The application process to the program started in mid-March, participants will be accepted until the end of September.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński