In 2014 the Jagiellonian University celebrates the 650th anniversary of its foundation. A number of academic events, including conferences, symposia, cultural events, and exhibitions will be held to mark this special occasion. The details regarding the main anniversary events were revealed at the press conference featuring the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, Prof. dr hab. med. Wojciech Nowak, the Head of the Conrgess of Academic Culture Programme Board, Prof. dr hab. Piotr Sztompka, and the Head of the JU Student Government, Dawid Kolenda.

The organisers hope that the Jubilee of the oldest Polish university will be a vital moment in the history of its academic community, the city of Kraków and the entire country. It should be noted that 2014 was announced the year of the Great Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University by the Senate of the Republic of Poland.

Many of the Jubilee events will be international in scope. A major international meeting is to be held on 9 May, when the Jagiellonian University will host the University Networks Members' Conference, which is to focus on the subject: "Internationalization of Higher Education: Europeanization and Globalization"

In the early 21st century, European higher education institutions have been faced with new opportunities and challenges related to the processes of Europeanization and Globalization. The meeting of the representatives of Coimbra Group, IRUN, Europaeum and Utrecht Network member institutions is aimed to address these increasingly important issues.

The conference will be divided into two sessions. Each session is to be devoted to one of the two questions below and will consist of ten-minute speeches by each of the panelists, followed by a general discussion.
The questions – main issues to be discussed:
1. What is the strength of European higher education? What do we have in common? Are there any common European values belonging to our higher education that could be seen as constituting the foundations of European Academia?
2. How to promote European higher education on a global scale, and compete with non-European universities? Should we offer our specific European higher education as something unique and valuable (even at the expense of our position in rankings), rather than accept universal-global standards and values and try to compete globally without contributing anything "specifically" European?

The list of the Jubilee events is available on the official Jubilee website: www.650.uj.edu.pl.

The events have been organised with the assistance of TAURON Polska Energia SA – the strategic sponsor of the 650th Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University.