University of Warsaw offers help to those who experienced discrimination, sexual violation, mobbing or any unequal treatment and violation of student rights.
It is the duty of every employee of the University of Warsaw to respect the principles of equality in such a way that every student and employee of our University felt safe within the walls of our Faculty, convinced that his / her rights are properly respected.
First steps
If you are a student or employee and you experience unfair or degrading treatment, or you notice that someone around you is being treated badly, you can first contact Representative for Equality at our Faculty. If you are a student, you can contact the Student Council, the Vice-Dean for Student Affairs or 1st-year students tutor. These people can listen to your problems and help you to find the proper institution where you can receive professional support.
If you are in a crisis situation and you need immediate psychological support, contact the Warsaw Crisis Intervention Center or or 116sos.pl
The university also offers support to people who are in crisis. More information can be found here and in the institutions and persons described below.
Representative for Equality at the Faculty of Archaeology
It is the first contact person at our Faculty for matters related to unequal treatment, discrimination, sexual harassment, and other undesirable behavior. This person informs about training, equality courses, and anti-discrimination procedures.
A Representative for Equality cooperates with the Academic Ombudsman for student and employee affairs, the Equality Team, and the Team of Coordinators for counteracting unequal treatment, discrimination, mobbing and other undesirable behaviour.
Representative for Equality at the Faculty of Archaeology is Dr. hab. Katarzyna Pyżewicz
Conatct: k.pyzewicz@uw.edu.pl
Council of the Students’ Self-Government of the Faculty of Archeology (for students)
You can contact our Student Council for advice on problems and crisis situations that may arise at the Faculty, University or outside the university.
Contact: https://www.archeologia.uw.edu.pl/en/students-council/
1st-year tutor (for students)
The tutor is a person who helps new students to get acquainted with the University and Faculty, who can answer all questions concerning your first steps in archaeology. You can also contact this person if you feel that it is the best solution. Tutor will tell you what you can do and where to go with your problem. Dr. Julia Chyla is the 1st-year tutor of our students.
Contact: j.chyla@uw.edu.pl
Vice-Dean for Student Affairs (for students)
Although the main task of the vice-dean for student affairs is the organization of education at the Faculty, it is also a person to whom evry student may address a question or complaint regarding the violation of the rules of equality and tolerance and the student rights. Each case can be reported by e-mail or by contacting the vice-dean.
Contact: Dr. Elżbieta Jaskulska wa.student@uw.edu.pl, how to contact directly is described here
Ombudsman
The Academic Ombudsman is a person to whom students, academic and administrative employees can ask for help with matters related to the university and its community. The Ombudsman can be addressed with any mobbing and discrimination issue, which will be dealt with confidentiality (in regard to both information provided to the Ombudsman and identity of the person making the report), independence, neutrality and impartiality. The task of the Ombudsman is to support employees and students in the conflict resolution and to ensure that all members of the academic community are treated fairly and righteously.
Cases to the ombudsman can be reported both by individuals – employees, doctoral students and students, as well as organizational units of the University of Warsaw, and student and doctoral self-government bodies.
The reporting procedure is described here.
Contact: http://ombudsman.uw.edu.pl/en/contact/
Equality Team
The members of the Equality Team create and implement anti-discrimination policies, and activities for equal treatment and diversity; conduct research in the field of equality and coordinate, supervise, and support activities for equality education; undertake promotional activities and raise awareness of equality and diversity issues.
Anna Grędzińska
Equal opportunities chief specialist
Coordinator for counteracting unequal treatment, discrimination, mobbing and other undesirable behaviour
Dr. hab. Julia Kubisa, prof. UW
Chief specialist on equality research and education
Zuzanna Kaszuba
Equality classes specialist
Contact: https://rownowazni.uw.edu.pl/en/contact/
We encourage you to visit the UW Equality Website
Anyone who has experienced discrimination, unequal treatment, or other undesirable behaviour may report the incident directly to the members of the Equality Team, Ombudsman, or representative for Equality at the faculty.
Student Ombudsman (for students)
The competences of the Student Ombudsman include: all activities related to the student rights, activities to increase students’ awareness of their rights, help in solving problems and represent the student interest. The Student Ombudsman provides information on the student’s rights, indicates which procedure is most beneficial from the point of view of the student’s interests and intervenes before the competent body of the University.
Student Ombudsman – Zuzanna Bastek
Plenipotentiary for Equality- Magdalena Michałowska
The Psychological and Counselling Services Centre (CPP UW)
The Psychological and Counselling Services Centre is a university center that offers free assistance to students and UW employees with any personal, emotional, and psychological concerns they may be experiencing. The center provides single consultations and meetings focused on intervention, individual short-term psychotherapy, time-limited group psychotherapy, and the possibility of participating in workshops and psychoeducational work.
Contact: https://cpp.uw.edu.pl/en/contact-us/
Office for Persons with Disabilities (BON)
Office for Persons with Disabilities is an institution whose aim is to help and support people with disabilities, both students in the pursuit of their studies and employees of the university. Office for Persons with Disabilities can be addressed by anyone who, due to his/her disability, experiences inferior treatment or faces barriers in the course of studying or undertaking other important activities necessary for the proper functioning at the University.
Contact: https://bon.uw.edu.pl/contact/
Medical care and health insurance
University of Warsaw students and employees can use the healthcare provided by the CenterMed academic clinic free of charge.
More information about the medical care and health insurance system in Poland can be found here: https://welcome.uw.edu.pl/healthcare/
Academic Legal Advice Centre (for students)
The Academic Legal Advice Centre is an institution providing free legal aid to students, relating to student matters, as well as civil law, family and guardianship law, labour law, administrative law, and more. Individuals who provide counseling in the unit are generally students of the last years, graduates, and PhD students of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, who work with the support of advisers experienced in a particular field.
Contact: https://akademickaporadniaprawna.pl/kontakt/
Center for Dispute and Conflict Resolution at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw
The Center for Dispute and Conflict Resolution is an organisation whose statutory purpose is to promote amicable conflict resolution. The Center mediates cases directed by the courts, as well as cases in which the parties refer personally.
For more information, visit the Center’s website
Guides, training, campaigns
Guide to the prevention of sexual harassment at the University of Warsaw
Anti-discrimination Guidebook for students and employees of the University of Warsaw
Recommendations on non-discriminatory language at the University of Warsaw (2021) available in Polish
Guides for transgender people in academia created by the scholar society Queer UW (available in Polish):
- Handbook “Trans* – inclusive University. Creating a student-friendly university trans* people. A guide for universities”
- Handbook “Trans * – inclusive University. Creating a student-friendly university for trans* people. A guide for administration”
- Handbook “Trans * – inclusive University. Creating a student-friendly university for trans* people. A guide for trans* students”
The social campaign “We are all equal” is addressed to the entire community of the University of Warsaw. Its purpose is to strongly emphasize that there is no place for discrimination at UW and that people who experience it will find support at the university.
The social campaign “Mind your words” – for the promotion of dialogue and against hate speech. The aim of the campaign is to emphasize that there is no place for hate and hate speech at the UW, and that any person who has experienced or witnessed them will find support at the university.
The “Understanding Equality” course for Warsaw University employees and students is available in Polish and English on the Kampus e-learning platform.