Warsaw orders officials with degrees from university hit by corruption scandal to retake exams

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski has ordered officials with degrees from Collegium Humanum – a private university accused of corruptly issuing diplomas in return for payment – to take a new exam by the end of this year if they wish to retain their positions.

Meanwhile, about a hundred current and former students of the Collegium Humanum – which was recently renamed as the University of Business and Applied Sciences “Varsovia” (UBNSV) – have protested outside its headquarters, claiming that they are suffering professional consequences because of the scandal.

Since a change to the law in 2017, holding an MBA has been a way to meet the requirements necessary to sit on the board of a state-owned enterprise. Collegium Humanum has been accused of exploiting this by effectively becoming a degree factory to provide MBAs for officials wanting to hold such positions.

The corruption scandal has embroiled both the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party – one of whose politicians was detained and questioned in September – as well as the current governing coalition.

Last week, the mayor of Wroclaw, Poland’s third-biggest city, was detained and charged in relation to the case. He is accused of paying a bribe to receive a diploma then using that qualification to unlawfully earn 230,000 zloty (around €53,000) for sitting on supervisory boards.

In response to the growing scandal, Trzaskowski – deputy leader of Poland’s main ruling Civic Platform (PO) party – announced this week that “all my colleagues with a diploma from Collegium Humanum will have to pass a new exam by the end of the year”, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

City hall spokeswoman Marzena Gawkowska later clarified to the newspaper that the requirement concerns anyone delegated by the mayor to sit on the supervisory board of companies partly or wholly owned by the city, and for whom a diploma from Collegium Humanum was their only qualification to be there.

The exam in question is organised by the state assets ministry and will only take place on three further dates this year.

Asked what would happen if someone fails to pass the exam by the end of this year, Gawkowska told Gazeta Wyborcza only that, “the mayor’s intention is to ensure that in 2025 supervisory boards of companies in which the city of Warsaw participates will only include people whose eligibility will be further confirmed”.

In Warsaw alone, at least 20 local government figures are known to have received MBAs from Collegium Humanum, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Among them is Grzegorz Kuca, head of the Bemowo district in Warsaw and Trzaskowski’s party colleague.

“This is a difficult exam, you have to memorise several hundred examples. It can’t be learned in a month,” he told the newspaper, adding, however, that he has signed up for one of the three remaining exam dates scheduled for this year.

Meanwhile, former and current Collegium Humanum students have accused the university’s new administration of stonewalling their efforts to complete their studies.

“I have no access to the grades I legitimately obtained by taking exams,” said one of about a hundred students who protested outside the university headquarters on Tuesday, reported financial news website Money.pl. “Worst of all, I’ve been deprived of job opportunities.”

Many fear their educational achievements are being unfairly undermined by allegations against the university, which stopped issuing diplomas earlier this year as prosecutors investigated irregularities. The university’s former rector has also been detained and charged.

Some students allege that the delays have derailed their professional aspirations. The protesters called for fair treatment of those who earned their qualifications honestly.

Karolina Synowiec, one of the protest leaders, emphasised that “not everyone bought diplomas. Many of us studied honestly and now just want to finish what we started”.

Several dozen students have filed a class action lawsuit against the university, local Warsaw broadcaster TVP3 Warszawa reported earlier this month.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Kdzhum / wikimedia.org (under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.