Wydział Nauk Społecznych UWS w Siedlcach - Artykuły w języku polskim

The faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences has two unique projects for foreign lecturers – International Week and Meetings with Business.

In 2003 the first edition of the International Week took place – the project was carried out in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Nordhausen, Germany. The International Week is held yearly in May. During the Week international lecturers have classes with students of the Faculty (each participant performs a 15-hour course). The original German project of International Project Week was altered and a conference was added which is held the first day and which enables our guests not only to fulfill the didactic objective but also reach scientific goals through exchanging ideas and experiences. After the week a book in English is published.

The initiative of Meetings with Business came from business people. In 2009 one of the previous students of the Faculty of Management asked the Dean whether the Faculty could organize a seminar or a conference for managers of small and medium enterprises who did not have easy access to the latest knowledge. He represented a group of colleagues who wanted to discover more about corporate social responsibility. Not only managers, but also university lecturers and final year students take part in Meetings. The first Meeting with Business “Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Aspects of Business” took place in March 2009. The organizers did not expect a very big audience, and were pleasantly surprised when about 70 business people appeared, including the president of the Eastern Chamber of Commerce. Since then the Chamber has got involved in the project in three ways: 1) co financing it, 2) delegating managers who present their best practices, and 3) proposing topics for the conference. Three years ago the Chamber signed an agreement with the Faculty stating the conditions of the collaboration concerning Meetings with Business (and also other events, but everything started with Meetings). So far there have been five editions of the event, which is held annually: “Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Aspects of Business”, “Benchmarking and the Process of Learning in an Organization”, “Public Relations as an Art of Creating Good Relations with the Stakeholders of an Organization”, “Human Resources – their Use and Development” and “Innovation in Business”.

Meetings with Business started as a very local initiative, but now it is an international event, where professors, first of all from our partner universities have presentations and workshops. Moreover, not only small and medium companies participate, but also large. Also, every year several Erasmus lecturers are invited who, except classes with students participate in Meetings, visit various companies and have a programme of fringe events. After each Meeting a book in English is also published.

Both international events are organized as projects of Internationalization at Home. They allow the students who do not go abroad to have classes with foreign professors. They also bring additional value for foreign guests who can meet colleagues from various universities, exchange scientific experiences, and find out more about Poland, as fringe events involve trips to interesting places and savouring local food.

In 2011 an agreement was signed with the School of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University in Minsk.

In 2014 the Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences signed a cooperation agreement with BREST STATE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.

In 2015 the Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences signed a cooperation agreement with International Black Sea University in Tbilisi (Georgia).

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The Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences, being a part of the University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in Siedlce, accepts the objectives and the mission of the whole University, whose ultimate elements are: the education of students – the future social and economic élite of the country; educating students in a way that permits them take responsibility for the Polish state, promote democracy and respect human rights; scientific research; the education and promotion of academic staff; the dissemination and enrichment of scientific achievements and national culture; contact with graduates; working for the local community and the region.

The Faculty will realize the mission through its appropriate scientific fields and the programmes it runs. It is also ready to fulfill the mission entering public debate in the adequate areas.

The main purpose of the Faculty is to use its potential fully, to gain an important position in the structure of the University and in the Polish and international market of educational services.

The Faculty also remembers about heritage, tradition and university customs, expecting from its staff and students mutual trust, hard work and adhering to ethical principles. It strives to become a genuine community of students and academics through high expectations and at the same time providing students with good conditions of studying, introducing modern forms of education, and opening the Faculty to the world.

To fulfill the above mentioned mission the Faculty has crated three main strategic purposes:

The development of scientific research and raising the scientific position of the Faculty,
High quality of education,
Internationalization as the main element of collaboration with the environment.

Nowadays, internationalization is the necessary condition of the development of any institution of higher education. The efforts to open the Faculty to international students and lecturers were taken from the very beginning, as the Socrates/Erasmus programme started in 2001/2002, the following year the Faculty was created. Since then the number of foreign partners, the number of incoming students and lecturers and the number of outgoing students and lecturers has steadily increased. During this period the Faculty introduced many courses in English, and also innovative projects for Erasmus lecturers: International Week (started in 2003) and Meetings with Business (started in 2009), both of which are held yearly.

Plans for the period 2014 – 2020 include:

Preparing a specialization - International Business for undergraduate students. This specialization will be available for students in the academic year 2013/2014 (work completed).
Opening MA programme in management, fully in English (work has started, implementation in two years time).
Creating and implementing the project of double-diplomas (talks with potential partners have started, implementation not later than within the next four years).
Creating and implementing MBA programme.
Improving the activities promoting the Faculty, and actively searching for new partners and students, also from non European countries, especially China, India and Brazil.
Actively using the existing agreements and extending the collaboration beyond their scope, especially towards common scientific research, creating networks to apply for European grants, and contributing in each other’s international scientific journals.

The Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences has had international experience for over ten years, and now wants to accelerate and deepen the process of gaining new partners and collaborating with them. Providing good quality courses in English and being competitive in price, the Faculty can become an educational centre for less wealthy students from European and non European countries. On the other hand, cooperation with foreign universities and having access to their scientific experience has been so far, and will be in the future a big stimuli to the improvement of the quality of education and research, which are the basic strategic goals of the Faculty, impossible to be acquired without the third one, that is internationalization.

The Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences has already adhered to the five basic principles of Erasmus Programme:

Increasing attainment levels to provide the graduates and researchers Europe needs; So far the Faculty has had mainly short term Erasmus student and teacher mobility. However, from the very beginning one of the main goals of the international policy was to add some extra value to the basic programme, and both visiting students and lecturers were encouraged to participate in the Faculty research and publishing activities, which resulted in:
- a number of previous Erasmus students entering scientific careers,
- a number of Erasmus lecturers publishing in the Faculty’s scientific journal, and systematically writing contributions for books published in English,
- a number of Erasmus lecturers being a part of the board of editors of the journal,
- a number of Erasmus lecturers becoming visiting professors and staying in the Faculty for a longer period of time,
- a number of Erasmus lecturers systematically participating in International Week and Meeting with Business.
Improving the quality and relevance of higher education; The Faculty has been systematically increasing the number of courses in English, and introduced a specialization International Business. Plans for the next four years involve a full postgraduate management programme in English and double diploma studies.
Strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation; The Faculty carefully chooses its partners, trying to link LLP/Erasmus activities with scientific and research activities going beyond the programme. Actually, the Faculty has applied for an European grant with one of its Erasmus partners (Ergowork project). In the future two main objectives concerning cross-border cooperation are:
- gaining more European partners, especially those which are ready to collaborate with the Faculty beyond the basic mobility area,
- attracting non European partners, especially from Brazil and China.
Linking higher education, research and business for excellence and regional development; Three years ago the Faculty signed an agreement with the Eastern Chamber of Commerce concerning collaboration and common support. The agreement was the result of existing earlier cooperation, however, it strengthened and channeled the activities which range from discussing study programmes, to students practice and common projects (Meetings with Business is one of them).
Improving governance and funding. The Faculty uses European funding for teacher and student mobility, trying to use it as efficiently as possible choosing the best applicants and carefully investigating mobility effects. Holding annual conferences and workshops, the Faculty also can rely on sponsors, especially from the Eastern Chamber of Commerce.

In the next years the Faculty intends to take further steps in the modernization of education and internationalization, intensifying and extending all its activities.

The Faculty of Social Sciences of the Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities is one of the five faculties of the University, also the youngest and the fastest developing. It was founded on 1st September 2000 and until September 2012 called the Faculty of Management.

The Faculty is involved in numerous research projects especially focused on actual challenges regarding management and logistics, regional development, particularly of Eastern Poland, management of the environment and institutional aspects of environmental management.

Our mission is to prepare young people for competent functioning in the dynamically changing environment. We endeavour to provide our graduates with the knowledge, skills and abilities to diagnose, understand and solve problems in the fields of administration, logistics and management. Consequently, we offer our students three study programmes of administration (Ievels I and II), logistics (level I) and management (levels I and II).

Additionally, the Faculty runs five post-diploma study programmes: "Strategic Management of Personnel", "New Forms of Advertising", "Civil Service in Public Administration and Regional and Local Development", "Administration and Public Finance" and "Internal Audit and Accounting".

Students of the Faculty can broaden their interests in five scientific circles: the Circle of Administration, the Circle of Economists, the Circle of Logisticians, the Circle of Managers called "Top Manager" and the Explorator Circle. Members of these circles participate in seminars and scientific conferences in Poland and abroad. Since 2007 the students of "Top Management" have co-organized the League of Business Managers (LMB) which is a highly regarded management competition.

The Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences issues a scientific quarterly journal called "Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczo-Humanistycznego - Seria Administracja i Zarządzanie". On this occasion I would like to invite our foreign partners to publish articles in it.

It is also worth mentioning that many lecturers of the Faculty have practical experience collaborating with various companies, and are eager to share it both with students and foreign colleagues.

I hope that studying in the Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences can give foreign students the opportunity of the realization of their dreams and plans, and allow them to gain knowledge and skills together with stimulating personal development. On the other hand the visits of foreign lecturers can lead to enriching scientific collaboration and sharing experiences. For both groups we have prepared attractive offers: over thirty interesting courses in English for students and two unique international projects for lecturers.

On behalf of all the lecturers of the Faculty and myself I would like to heartily invite you to visit the Faculty of Economic and Legal Sciences hoping that your stay in Siedlce will be fruitful and help you to reach your own goals.

Prof. Malina Kaszuba

Dean

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FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities

Projects for foreign lecturers

Partners of the Faculty of Economic

International cooperation

The mission and strategy of internalization

Foreword from the Dean