The official celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the CUCEE cooperation network have concluded. The event took place on 13–14 November in Zielona Góra. The two-day programme was organised by the University of Zielona Góra with financial support from the City of Zielona Góra. Our university hosted official delegations from four partner institutions: THM (Germany), Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius, Lviv Polytechnic National University, and Silesian University of Technology.
Representatives of these academic institutions participated, among other activities, in a working meeting held in the UZ Senate Hall, which provided an opportunity to briefly summarise the achievements of the CUCEE network to date. Such meetings are organised twice a year by member universities. When they coincide with anniversary celebrations, they traditionally take on a more ceremonial character. This time, the delegations met with Prof. Wojciech Strzyżewski – Rector of the University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Justyna Patalas-Maliszewska – Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation, and Prof. Andrzej Obuchowicz – Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technical Sciences.
One of the highlights of the meeting was the ceremonial presentation of the so-called “double diploma” to Bartłomiej Sudoł – the latest graduate of the Integrated Foreign Studies Programme offered jointly by Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen and the University of Zielona Góra (IFS THM-UZ).
“Integrated Foreign Studies (IFS) are a joint initiative of CUCEE partner universities, reflecting the cooperative nature of their long-standing academic relations. The first IFS programme was established between THM and UZ in 1998. In later years, additional programmes were formed between THM and subsequent partner institutions. These studies are conducted in two languages and take place partly at the home university and partly at the partner university. They conclude with a thesis supervised by academics from both institutions. Graduates receive diplomas from their home university and from THM. To date, more than 100 students from partner institutions have participated in the programme, including 57 from UZ. The first IFS THM-UZ graduate completed the programme in 2001. It is also worth noting that in the 2014/2015 academic year, an IFS programme was launched between the University of Zielona Góra and Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius (VGTU). Three VGTU students have so far taken part, and the double diploma issued in 2016 was the first of its kind at UZ,” explains Prof. Ryszard Rybski, Director of the Institute of Metrology, Electronics and Computer Science at UZ and Rector’s Plenipotentiary for International Cooperation within the CUCEE Network.
The central element of the 25th-anniversary celebrations was a ceremonial concert held under the honorary patronage of the Rector of UZ. The event featured ensembles representing partner universities: the THM Orchestra “applied sounds” (Germany), the folk dance group “VINGIS” from Vilnius, the robot music ensemble “KAP{F}ELA” from Plzeň, as well as pianist Adam Łuszczak and the Gospel Choir “Inspirational Voices”, representing the University of Zielona Góra. The concert’s artistic direction was overseen by Prof. Bogumiła Tarasiewicz.
It is worth recalling that the “Cooperation of Universities in Central and East Europe” (CUCEE) network was established in 2000 by four universities — Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), Tallinn University of Technology, Lviv Polytechnic, and the University of Zielona Góra — on the basis of mutual cooperation agreements. The beginnings of the partnership date back to 1997, when THM and UZ signed their first cooperation agreement. In the following years, the network expanded to include Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius, the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, and the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics in Minsk. In 2024, the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň joined the network.
