Duda defends “his universities”. Vexes the liquidation of the Copernican Academy and the Main School of Nicolaus Copernicus

President Andrzej Duda informed on Tuesday that he vetoed the Act on the liquidation of the Copernican Academy and the Act on the Academy of Justice. – I will not agree that universities are hit in Poland – said Duda on Telewizja Republika.

Duda said that in the case of the Copernicus Academy we are attempted to liquidate the university, “which was created on the Copernican anniversary and which was to conduct international cooperation in fields of the great Polish astronomer, scientist and man who changed the world.”

The president also reported that he vetoed the law regarding the Academy of Justice. As he noted, in this case, “not so much the university is liquidated (…), but to a huge extent there is a jump to its autonomy.” “It's only about staff takeover, that is, to throw away the current university authorities and replace them with their people,” Duda emphasized.

As he said, he had to refer these two laws to the Sejm for reconsideration, because “he would not agree that universities be hit in Poland.” – I do not agree that such laws are in the Polish legal system, I oppose it, this is in my opinion an absolute violation of the university autonomy – explained the reasons for vetoing the laws of the President.

Copernicus Academy and the Main School of Nicolaus Copernicus were created on the initiative of President Andrzej Duda under the Act of 28 April 2022 on the Copernicus Academy. The initiative was promoted by the then Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek. Institutions of the academic community – incl. Conference of the Rectors of Polish Academic Schools, the Main Council of Science and Higher Education and the Polish Academy of Sciences – were against the establishment of the so -called Copernican organization. It was argued that they would duplicate the tasks of existing institutions.

“The motives of liquidation (…) are in fact a polemic with the reasons for the creation of these institutions and the repetition of the arguments raised by the then opposition during parliamentary work on the draft act on the Copernican Academy in 2022, mainly regarding the fact that the structures appointed allegedly only duplicate the tasks and functions of entities that worked for the system of higher education and science before their system I did not share the creation and I still do not share these arguments, “wrote Andrzej Duda in the application to the Sejm for reconsideration of the Act, published on Tuesday on the President's website.

In his opinion, from the establishment of the Copernican Academy and the Main School of Nicolaus Copernicus, too short time has passed to be able to critically assess their activities.

Andrzej Duda pointed out in the application that, according to the original assumptions, the Act on the Copernicus Academy itself provides for transitional provisions regulating some issues in a temporary manner. “Therefore, the current parliamentary majority of liquidation actions regarding these entities before the expiry of the deadlines indicated above is definitely premature and justified by political rather than substantive considerations,” he assessed.

He added that the operation of both units is “hindered by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, among others, by depriving largely of the funding previously awarded – the funds from the Budget Act for 2024 were reduced by more than half – which, as indicated by representatives of the Copernicus Academy, paralyzed its activities in the scope of awarding awards, grants and scholarships and prevented some previously signed contracts under grant programs. “

“Considering the deprivation of the universities to which the Act of 25 July 2025, a significant part of public funds, as extreme hypocrisy and cynicism, it should be considered to be charged with no effective actions,” wrote the president.

“Darma's deliberate sabotage and public harassment of the institutions established by the Act to strengthen the position of Polish science in the world, crowned with an attempt to liquidate them – definitely prematurely and without proper objective analysis – cannot meet my approval,” Andrzej Duda summed up in the letter.

In turn, changes regarding the Academy of Justice are included in the amendment to the Act on the Prison Service and the Act on the establishment of the “Police Modernization Program, Border Guard, State Fire Service and State Protection Service in 2022–2025”, on the establishment of the “Program for the Modernization of the Prison Service in 2022–2025” and about the amendment to the Police Act.

The act amended the name of the Judgment Academy as part of the Prison Service to: Academy of Prison Service. It was to enable the university's activities primarily on the education of staff for the needs of this service. According to the information of the Ministry of Justice, after the changes proposed in the amendment, the supervision of the General Director of the Prison Service was to be supervised on the implementation of the organizational tasks of the Academy, while in other cases – the supervision of the Minister of Justice. The role of the SW General Director in the scope of managing the university and determining the number of trained officers, especially candidates for officers, was also to be strengthened. (PAP)

KOS/ AGT/ MHR/