What I See Is My Great University...

A conversation with Professor Roman Kołacz

Ewa Jaworska: You paraphrased the words of Stanisław Wyspiański!

Professor Roman Kołacz: Are you surprised?

Ewa Jaworska: Actually... not at all.

Professor Roman Kołacz: Really?

Ewa Jaworska: Yes, because you are a veterinarian, and veterinarians are broad minded humanists.

Professor Roman Kołacz, appointed in March, 2012, to the position of Rector of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences for the second four-year term. Things we can and want to achieve, things we must or need to change, our successes and areas that still need some improve-ment... I asked the Rector about his views on all these matters in the outset of his second term of office.

Ewa Jaworska: Professor, four years ago you were appointed to the position of rector, you presented a number of goals, realization of which was to guarantee a successful development of the University. Which of your plans failed to see the light of day during your first term between 2008 and 2012?

Professor Roman Kołacz: Your question, contrary to appearances, is quite difficult to answer, because the realization of initiatives we committed ourselves to as it was stated in the document defining the main targets of our University for the years 2008-2012, was only partially illustrating my vision of our excellent reputation and prestige.

To address your question, I will refer to a document we approved at one of the initial senate sessions in 2008. And so, according to its content, we launched six new education programmes, but we did not manage to extend this offer by the inter-departa-mental and inter-university programme in microbiology and dietetics. Despite our plans to launch education programmes (also postgraduate) taught in English for international students at a number of our faculties, we only managed to do so in the case of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. We also failed to reorganize the structure of our University so that it would possible to extend our qualifications to award doctoral and habilitation degrees. Unsuccessful were also our efforts to launch the Inter-departamental Institute of Environmental Science. Although we started negotiations, the initiative of forming a single modern unit for agrotechnical research was not finalized. Eventually, we did not manage to complete the process of implementation of a central university IT system destined to serve as an integrated administration tool, to facilitate the workflow of electronic documentation and to host the virtual dean’s office.

I would like to justify myself by saying that some of our planned investments needed considerable financial resources, and it is mostly due to their lack that we were unable to complete them. During this term we are relaunching many of these investments.

How will you adapt the teaching strategy to boost the attractiveness of the University for the students and to produce graduates who are more desired by the employees?

In my opinion, our idea of launching new, attractive education programmes was a good strategy. That is why I will try to encourage the faculties to seek new education options, to modernize the existing programmes and to withdraw those that are outdated in order to gain more applicants and make the graduates of such new programmes more successful in the employment market.

I will also try to promote and support the activities focusing on launching at least one education programme in English at each of our faculties. I have already addressed a request to several Professors to prepare teaching materials in English for the purposes of a new programme in tropical agriculture - an interesting offer for students from developing countries of Africa or Asia. I would like to finalize the already running process of launching the inter-faculty postgraduate learning centre for international students. We also need to extend the offer of active postgraduate education programmes and the number of their students. I also do not exclude the option of launching, in cooperation with private institutions, tuition-based courses. We also need to learn how to make money on teaching. Nonetheless, what I always emphasize is that quality is for us more important than quantity. That is why I am an advocate of introducing radical changes in the education system.

With the help of independent experts, we need to, among others, make a thorough analysis of its current state. I have an impression that time devoted to individual learning process by our students is still much shorter than in the case of their colleagues from the countries of western Europe or USA. Our courses are about serving our students ready made portions of basic information on a given subject and then we simply examine their knowledge - just like in secondary schools. But why there is no focus on individual library research, on developing skills of information retrieval or teamwork which then translates into the ability to cooperate with colleagues at work? How many Professors from other universities or research institutes, excellent specialists in various areas, or practitioners give lectures at our University? Thorough changes in this area is what we really need. practical classes that are currently held at large auditoriums should be transformed into lectures, and with the savings generated from this change we should finance the process of reducing the number of students participating in practical classes. We must also radically change the methods of teaching and the demands as far as the knowledge of foreign languages is concerned. During my whole professional career I have never heard about any student who had to repeat a year due to failing a foreign language exam. Are our students really that good at foreign languages?

By what means are you planning to extend the range of scientific research, as well as their level and practical value?

I promised myself to concentrate all my efforts on raising funds from the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development. Professor Tadeusz Trziszka, for example, has put forward an interesting project of forming the leading research teams and an office for drawing up and coordinating research projects. The decision to include the issues connected with international research projects and matters concerning the implementation in the agenda of the pro-rector for education and innovation will allow us to conduct a more efficient review process of all projects devoted to innovations, to launch the patent procedure and to conduct the commercialization process. Implementations and commercialization of research results are one of the biggest challenges of the forthcoming term.

We all have to be aware of the fact that we need grants just like we need oxygen. The faculties, the academic community, the whole University needs it. Without grants there are no high quality publications, there is no development of academic staff and high parametric evaluation of units. Without sufficient financial resources we may soon face a radical decline and degradation from the status of a university institution to the status of higher school of vocational education. Winning grants is then an obligation of every single research worker, and most of all of those who work individually. It is my plan to focus on this process in detail.

You mentioned that it was impossible to complete the process of computerizing the University. Is there still much work ahead and is this issue among the priorities?

The University management process would be both cheaper and more efficient if we fully implemented the integrated IT system in all our faculties and the virtual dean’s office facility was available for every faculty. With this in mind, this task is still given the highest priority. It is my belief that the full informatisation of the University will let us reduce the number of administrative staff and increase their salaries. In four years from now, thanks to the initiatives we have been undertaking we should be able to achieve the following:

• To retain the current number of students despite the population decline.
• To extend the number of grants, and thanks to this the proportion of funds from the National Science Centre, the National Centre for Research and Development and from international projects.
• To increase the incomes from product commercializations and implementations.
• To increase the internationalization of the University both in the area of teaching and scientific research.
• To have at least two faculties with the KNOW status.
• To gain a positive evaluation of the National Accreditation Committee.
• To gain the position among the top 20 public universities of agriculture and life sciences in the ranking of Rzeczpospolita and Perspektywy magazines.
• To see our reputation keep gaining on strength.

Such are my plans, maybe not all of them are feasible, but I am aware this is the matter of tight competition. Managing a university with no aspirations to improve its reputation can be compared to attending church masses by an atheist.

If improving the quality of education and scientific research is our most important target, what tools will you use to achieve the desired effect?

Firstly, we will need to raise our demands and formulate clear evaluation criteria of both our research and teaching staff in the area of quality of teachng and the quality of scientific research. The results of this evaluation will let us appreciate the leaders with awards, higher salaries, lower number of teaching hours, and in the case of negative evaluation let us part with those who are not willing to cooperate under our conditions. Evaluation needs to be intrinsic, it needs to trace those who pretend to be working, present themselves as co-authors of often poor quality papers or co-implementators of research projects, but who actually didn’t make a single interesting individual scientific contribution. There are many young Doctors waiting to take their place - with good command of foreign languages, with extensive internship experi-ence and degrees from international universities. Only this kind of academic staff guar-antees our future success. I believe that this new approach to the HR policy will be followed by our deans. I shall follow this matter closely and react if necessary.

Newly appointed directors of individual units, departments or institutes will be required to have experience in the area of research projects’ management. If a candidate for the position of a unit director did not bother to file an application to the National Science Centre or the National Centre for Research and Development during his preceding term, they will have no chances to hold a managerial office.

How will the competences of the individual pro-rectors change?

Only slightly. Competences of the pro-rector for international and regional coop-eration regarding the implementation and innovation as well as international research projects will be passed on to the pro-rector for science and innovation. As far as the prorector for international and regional cooperation is concerned, this person will deal with all economic agreements. Other changes will include transferring all the recruitment- related issues to the competences of the pro-rector for development.

What changes at our University will we see on the first of October?

Last year it was possible for me to describe the changes at our University that took place during holidays in a more vivid way. Today I can only say that our fresh and shiny University is looking forward to welcome its students, especially those new ones. We have appointed five new deans, two new pro-rectors, and a new composition of the Senate and the senate and rector commissions. But what is most important is that in the outset of the forthcoming term, the university management board is full of optimism and enthusiasm to take up new initiatives and to modernize the University. All the members were elected in the course of democratic elections - they are best of the best. Their passion and engagement makes me believe that together we can do great things. And I am sure this will happen soon.

The management board of the admin-istrative section of our University also deserves to be praised, mostly Mr. Chancellor and Ms. Finance Officer. Great engagement of many members of academic community and administration I witnessed during my preceding term, makes me believe that they will continue to be as hard-working and devoted to building the reputation of our University as they were till this moment. That is why I am certain that my dreams will come true.

Most of the universities are extending their teaching and research facilities. Are we planning to construct some other new build-ings except the Geo-Info-Hydro?

During the summer break we submitted an application to the National Centre for Research and Development on our new planned investment, Education Centre for Applied Biology, and we are currently waiting for the evaluation results. Our development strategy for the year 2020 includes several investments that will be verified on the occasion of upgrading this document, and if we decide to keep them in our agenda, we will try to implement them according to our resources.

We must remember however, that we probably won’t be gaining more students, and this will result in slimmer investment budget. Extending our facilities also involves increased costs of their maintenance. I am rather for modernizing and raising the standards of existing education and research units and their optimal utilization. What we must also do, is to create opportunities to change the function of some rooms in our buildings in case of withdrawing certain education programmes.

You claim that participation in an international internship programme is crucial both for the development of the University and for the personal development of individual researchers. And that this experience somehow determines the development of one’s professional career. It would be hard for me not to agree with that. How should we then reconcile this requirement with the fact that researchers are often also young parents or the newly-wedded couples? Are you planning to introduce any actions to make it easier in such cases?

In my opinion, current statute law regarding this issue is quite liberal - it allows a researcher who after completing the postgraduate programme could not participate in an international internship programme to hold the office of an assistant for the period of 8 years. Moreover, in special cases, we permit pauses in the internship programmes. To make myself clear, I would not like this to become an every day practice.

I realize that doing an internship at a university with an excellent reputation, (and such are most valued by us), often thousands of kilometres away, involves much effort of the young researcher’s family members. Nonetheless, judging from the experience of a considerable number of my staff, both younger and older, such travel is not only feasible but it also brings many benefits, also those related to personal life.

Since we are discussing this subject, I would like to say that I have been lately increasingly worried to learn about cases when Polish researchers participate in internship programmes at Slovak or Czech universities with no knowledge of foreign languages whatsoever. Benefits of such interns are scarce.

You are, to say most generally, a head of a state owned company, which employs about 1500 people and educates over 10 thousand students. This must be stressful. How do you keep up your good health and do you have time (and enthusiasm) to develop your passions or at least engage in favourite activities?

I agree that managing a university is a very stressful activity, I could deliver here a lecture I prepared for the students on the consequences of this type of stress. Although in this lecture I focus on stress experienced by animals, our human case is only slightly different. Difficult issues related both with people and financial resources, mainly this year, rob me of my sleep. My best companions during the sleepless nights are books - which I normally don’t have time for. Another wonderful cure is company of kind, cheerful and optimistic people. I am lucky to have such friends, both from and outside the university. We meet together with our families and these are moments when I forget about all the problems and some difficult professional relationships.

A real cure for my exhausted heart (I unfortunately have cardiac problems) are meetings with my beloved grandsons - Oliwier and Bartuś. As their grandfather I am most important to them, and vice versa.

My physical condition is not that bad, but I must admit that lately I have stopped looking after myself a bit. I don’t do running like before, I stopped swimming and going to the gym, I also don’t do much walking. I justify this by the lack of time, but my wife claims it’s simply laziness. Nonetheless, during vacations or short mountain excursions I make up for all the backlog. Every year with my closest friends I go skiing in the Alps. And in the evenings, after spending a whole day on the slope, we play card games - this makes me completely relaxed. I always find time to attend a good theatre or opera premier; occasionally I also go to concerts. I love our cultural evenings at the Pawłowice mansion-house. It’s wonderful that Professor Jerzy Monkiewicz organizes them every last Friday of the month, after our Senate sessions. This helps me to release the stress after difficult debates.

In the autumn and in winter when I light my fireplace, I like to stay alone listening to jazz music and sipping good whisky.

Thank you for the interview. I hope that all your dreams and plans will come true.

dr Ewa Jaworska