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The year 2014 marks the second edition of the Student Commendations, organised by the Jagiellonian University Student Government. The award ceremony took place in the Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology on 19 May 2014 at 7.00 p.m.

The Student Commendations Gala began with a performance by Mateusz Ziółko, winner of the third edition of the Voice of Poland talent show. Next, the representatives of JU Student Government, Justyna Ciszek and Piotr Szefer, greeted the numerous guests. After that, Prof. dr hab. med. Wojciech Nowak, JU Rector, made a short speech, in which he stressed the fact that the Commendations Gala is a remarkable success for the students, since it has already proven the vital role of students in the life of the University.

The award was presented in six categories:

• Friend of Students Award – Dr Paweł Czarnecki from the Chair of Criminal Procedure of the JU Faculty of Law and Administration,
• Best Academic Teacher Award – Dr Urszula Hubicka from the Chair in Inorganic Chemistry of the JU MC Faculty of Pharmacy,
• Honorary Award – Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Chwalba from the Chair in Historical Anthropology of the JU Faculty of History,
• Concern for Quality of Education Award – JU Section for Education Quality Analyses,
• Student Friendly Institution Award – PZU SA,
• Helping Hand Award – Ms. Anna Strzelec from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management of the JU Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences.

The award is a means of expressing gratitude of the student community for support in its endeavours as well as praising pro-student attitude of the University's employees and other institutions and activists. The first edition was very well received by students, employees and sympathisers of the University alike. This year, the Student Commendations Gala was part of the official celebrations of the 650th Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University, which made it an even more unique event. This initiative is a perfect illustration of the centuries-long university tradition of the Master-Apprentice relations.

Małopolskie Centrum Biotechnologii

On 13 May 2014, the grand opening of the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology was held at the Campus of the 600th Anniversary of JU Revival. The official cutting of the ribbon was preceded by the addresses by the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, Prof. Wojciech Nowak, the Chairman of the MCB Committee, Prof. Kazimierz Strzałka, Vice-Marshal of the Małopolskie Voivodeship, Mr Roman Ciepiela, Vice-President of Kraków, Ms Elżbieta Koterba, and Head of National Science Centre, Prof. Andrzej Jajszczyk. The attendees also included JU Vice-Rectors, Chancellor, Bursar and former Rectors, members of Polish Parliament, diplomatic corps, and representatives of other Polish higher education institutions.

After the ribbon was cut, the participants had an opportunity to take tour of the Centre's laboratories. The opening is followed by the academic conference "Challenges of Biotechnology in 21st Century", including a lecture by the Nobel Prize Winner, JU honorary doctor, Prof. Robert Huber.

The purpose of the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology is to conduct research at the highest possible level, generate innovation and cooperate with companies working in the field of life sciences. The MCB will also actively work with international partners, such as the Max Planck Gesellschaft, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Kyoto University. The Centre is open to cooperation in many areas of life science and anticipates that together with its new collaborators it will build and ensure continued scientific excellence.

Photos by Anna Wojnar

Małopolskie Centrum Biotechnologii

Małopolskie Centrum Biotechnologii

Małopolskie Centrum Biotechnologii

Photos by Anna Wojnar

On May 12, music lovers could listen to the pieces by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Mieczysław Weiniberg, performed by the world renown pianist, Elena Braslavsky and the Kraków quartet Cordes Classiques. The concert was hosted by the Center for Jewish Culture, whose director, Dr Joachim Russek welcomed the guests and presented the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, Prof. Wojciech Nowak with a memorial badge to mark the 20th anniversary of the Center's foundation. In his address, he referred to the 650th Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University, "We are very pleased that we can contribute to the celebration of this grand occasion", said the director.

Elena Braslavsky was born in Moscow. She studied at the Gnesin School of Music and later, after emigrating to the United States, she received her PhD degree at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Awarded with a Fulbright and DAAD scholarships, she also studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and at the European Mozart Academy in Prague under the supervision of Sandor Vegh. She has given concerts in renown concert halls of North and South America, Europe, Japan and Korea, where she performed alongside such artists as Steven Isserlis, Nibuko Imai and Mstislav Rostropovich. She was a tutor in the Juilliard School of Music and the Mannes College in New York, and currently teaches at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

The Cordes Classiques Quartet is composed of Kraków chamber musicians working closely with the Orchestra Sinfonietta Cracovia. The main field of interest of the group is the music of classical masters: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose works helped to crystallise the form of the string quartet and paved the way for the development of chamber music.

The Cordes Classiques Quartet, though rooted in classic beauty and elegance, also performs romantic and contemporary music. In addition, the extensive repertoire of the group includes "salon music" of the Strausses and Kreissler as well as transcriptions of dance and film music.

The Quartet has performed at many successful concerts and is widely appreciated by the audience.

The Monday concert was the last of the main musical and artistic events celebrating the 650th Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Koncert kameralny dedykowany Uniwersytetowi

Photo by Wojciech Karliński

On May 12, 2014 a Polish-American debate was held in the Jagiellonian University Collegium Maius. It was a continuation of the Congress of Academic Culture, which took place at the JU from March 20 to 22, 2014 and was aimed to start a discussion on the most important problems, dilemmas and challenges faced by the Polish university as an institution in the second decade of the 21st century. It had sent a strong message on the role that the European academic tradition should play in our times.

Polsko-amerykańska debata w Collegium Maius

The debate, entitled "Challenges and Dilemmas of Polish and American Universities in the 21st Century", was held in English. The main speakers included:

The discussion was moderated by Dr Piotr Prokopowicz from the JU Institute of Sociology. The debate w be related to the question posed at the Congress of Academic Culture: if and how can we preserve the centuries-old traditions of university as an academic institution in the modern era of mass education, rising cost of education and research and globalisation? What happens to the academic community and social trust, what of the master-apprentice relationships, what about qualitative assessment of research results and the status of scholars, what are the ways of improving education, what of the special status of the university and its distinctness from other higher academic institutions, and finally, what of the university's mission to create not only qualified workforce, but also enlightened citizens? How to combat bureaucratisation, fetishisation of quantitative ratings, narrow profile of education, negating the importance of basic research and humanities, opportunism in selection of research subjects, multiplying only seemingly important activities, plagiarism and falsification, and permissiveness of the academic community towards such issues?

Polsko-amerykańska debata w Collegium Maius

Polsko-amerykańska debata w Collegium Maius

Photos by Jerzy Sawicz

On 12 May 2014, exactly 650 years after its birth, the Jagiellonian University celebrated its Jubilee by honouring King Casimir the Great, its founder. A visionary monarch, he instilled the academic idea in Kraków, thereby making it one of the few ones that possessed a higher education institution.

As part of the official celebrations of the 650th Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, a commemorative plaque devoted to King Casimir the Great was embedded in the wall of Collegium Novum. The ceremony took place at noon. Prof. dr hab med. Wojciech Nowak, JU Rector, as well as Prof. Karol Musioł and Prof. Franciszek Ziejka, former JU Rectors, unveiled the plaque. The performance of the Jagiellonian University Academic Choir Camerata Jagellonica added splendour to the event.

Prof. Franciszek Ziejka, member of the Jubilee Committee, was the originator of the idea. The plaque was created by Prof. Jerzy Nowakowski from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej pamięci Króla Kazimierza Wielkiego

Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej pamięci Króla Kazimierza Wielkiego

Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej pamięci Króla Kazimierza Wielkiego

Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej pamięci Króla Kazimierza Wielkiego

Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej pamięci Króla Kazimierza Wielkiego

Odsłonięcie tablicy poświęconej pamięci Króla Kazimierza Wielkiego

11 May 2014 was marked by a sports competition: the JU Rector's Cup International Regatta (coxed eights) on the Vistula River by Wawel Castle. Nine European sports teams, including the famous teams from Cambridge University Boat Club and Oxford University Boat club as well as Polish team from Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Wrocław, Warsaw and Kraków, competed for the JU Rector's Cup at a distance of 1000 metres.

Prof. dr hab. Maria Flis, JU Vice-Rector for University Development, opened the Regatta. After a short official opening ceremony, during which flowers were lain underneath the statue of Prof. Walery Goetl, the competition commenced.

In the first phase, the teams competed in three groups, in a round-robin tournament.

Group A:

Group B:

Group C:

In accordance to the competition rules, the Jagiellonian University was qualified to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals were organised in a play-off system: the Nicolaus Copernicus University won against the Jagiellonian University, while the Kazimierz Wielki University prevailed over Oxford University. The teams from the JU and the OU then fought for the third place, with the winner being Oxford University.

In the Grand Final, the Nicolaus Copernicus University team proved to be the best in this championship.

Prof. dr hab. med. Wojciech Nowak, JU Rector, presented the winners with the Rector's Cup. Additionally, the team also received the Chancellors Cup, as they were the fastest to complete their runs. Every team received commemorative medals.

Since the Regatta met with such an enthusiasm, it was announced that they will be organised again next year.

Aside from the regatta, all those who visited the banks of Vistula River were able to attend various sports shows and even test their mettle in "dry paddling" – 650 metres on stationary ergometres. The participants were able to compare their results with the results of Olympic medallist and world champion Adam Korol, who was present at the Regatta.

photographs: Jerzy Pajor

Międzynarodowe regaty ósemek

Międzynarodowe regaty ósemek

Międzynarodowe regaty ósemek

Międzynarodowe regaty ósemek

Międzynarodowe regaty ósemek

Międzynarodowe regaty ósemek

On Sunday, 11 May, hundreds of people took an opportunity to visit the visit the unique and magical Jagiellonian Universtiy sites, where history meets the present, from the medieval Collegium Maius and the old University courtyards to Collegium Novum. Guides and custodians of the Jagiellonian University Museum took the visitors on a journey through 650 years of history and science.

Spacer po Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim

The tour consisted of two separate programmes: the Tour through the Old University Courtyards to Collegium Novum, which included the meeting at Huta Courtyard (ul. Św. Anny 10), the passage to Collegium Novodvorscianum, then to Arcade Courtyard (watching the clock and listening to the carrillon), passage through the Long Hallway to the Professors' Garden, listening to the account of the history of the University Quarter, walk to the Oak of Liberty, visit in the room 56 (which witnessed the arrest of university Professors by Nazi Germans during the infamous Sonderaktion Krakau), and in the Assembly Hall of Collegium Novum.
The participants of the second, shorter walk visited the main rooms of Collegium Maius: Libraria, where the university book collection used to be kept, the representative Stuba Communis, where the professors dined in the past, the Jagiellonian University Treasury, where the most precious relics of the University are kept, including its oldest insignia, and the beautiful Jagiellonian Aula, where many eminent people, including Pope John Paul II received an honorary degree.

The number of visitors interested in taking the tour was much higher than the number of places in the groups. Those who took the tour were usually very enthusiastic about it.

"We are very grateful that we could see the sites related to the life and history of the Jagiellonian University. Today, we need to come back to our roots, and it is here that we could find lots of information about what shaped our identity," said Mr Krzysztof Tomaszewski, an artist from Kraków.

Spacer po Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim

Spacer po Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim

Spacer po Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim

Photos by Filip Radwański