The official opening ceremony of the Ignacy Łukasiewicz Scholarship Programme was held at 2 p.m. last Thursday. We welcomed more than 100 scholarship holders from all over the world – young people who had decided to take up studies at Polish universities.
The ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister for Education and Science, Prof. Wojciech Maksymowicz, and Deputy Director of the Department of Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marek Kuberski. The guests were welcomed by NAWA Director Dr. Grażyna Żebrowska.
The students took part in a Q&A session with the Programme coordinator. They had the opportunity to clarify any doubts and receive crucial practical information related to the participation in the Programme. . In addition, they attended an opening lecture titled Psychological well-being of international students, which was prepared and held specifically for them by Prof. Marta Porębiak from the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
This year’s call for applications in the Programme met with a very broad response. NAWA noted an almost five-fold increase in the number of applications in comparison to last year. As a result, the level of competition among the applicants was extremely high. NAWA selected the best 136 applications from among 2344 submissions sent from more than 80 countries.
On account of the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Programme inauguration was held entirely online.
The Ignacy Łukasiewicz Scholarship Programme is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (Polish: Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej – NAWA within the framework of Polish Development Assistance.
The Programme aim is to support the socio-economic growth of developing countries (excluding European and Central Asian countries) through raising the level of knowledge and education of their citizens.Scholarship holders will be first recruited from the following countries: Angola, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, The Republic of South Africa, The Philippines, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam.