PSRP has protected students’ rights for 20 years

For 20 years the PSRP has strived to ensuring that students’ rights in Poland are respected. “In my opinion, the greatest effect of PSRP’s work is successful struggle for the second program of study, which is back free of charge” – says Mateusz Mrozek. The Constitutional Court in June 2014, claimed that provisions relating to payment for the second course of study are unconstitutional.

On November 11th, PSRP will celebrate its 20th anniversary. PSRP is an independent organization that gathers all the student unions from all universities in the country. The main tasks of the organisation are: representing students before state authorities, issuing opinions on legislative proposals, increasing awareness of their rights among students.  “In the past three years, we managed to establish a dialogue with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education” – said Mrozek.

PSRP takes part in public consultations and prepares opinions to legal acts and regulations. PSRP considers, however, that Ministry of Science and Higher Education does not devote enough attention to these opinions. That is why we prepared a draft amendment to the Act on Higher Education, called “Student Draft Amendment”. It gained a support of the whole students’ society.

Mateusz Mrozek recalled that the creation of the PSRP was due to the Act on Higher Education from 1990. However, the PSRP was not established so quickly. The first attempt to consolidate the students’ community were done by the All-Poland Alliance of Students’ Union (OPSS). On May 8th, 1995 the 22nd Congress of the OPSS adopted new statutes and authorities, and turned into a 1st Congress of the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland. Part of the old authorities of the OPSS did not accept the change, but ultimately on November 11th 1995 in Krakow, the “Unification” congress was held. “And from that moment we can talk about a single representation PS RP” – summed Mrozek.

The main celebrations of the 20th anniversary of PSRP took place on 6th-8th November 2015 in Warsaw. As part of the anniversary, a solemn meeting of the Students’ Council in the Polish Parliament was held, the first ever Students’ Fair Student EXPO and international project “Towards Democracy”. The celebrations were attended by the representatives of the European Students’ Union and students’ representatives from Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungry, Romania, Belarus and Ukraine.