Image Courtesy : www.facebook.com/jagiellonian.university

Polish universities plan to switch to online lectures and cut access to facilities on weekends because of facing massive hikes in electricity prices in 2023. But, the varsities remain hopeful the government will step in to support ease at least some of the burden.

Poland is currently reviving itself from a bizarre energy crisis brought upon the country of 38 million people due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, which pushed up commodity prices. Regardless of more recent investments in renewable energy sources, coal remains the staple fuel of Poland's electricity generation.

The Jagiellonian University in Kraków- the oldest Poland university, is currently facing a 700% boost in its electricity supply bill next year. The university will require to discover PLN182 million to cover its electricity bills next year, compared to PLN27 million in 2022.

Jacek Popiel Jagiellonian University said we need to design and develop a savings programme as soon as possible. But even with maximum savings, we cannot bear the burden of rising prices of energy and other utilities without any boost in subsidies. The Jagiellonian University has an emergency plan, including a switch to online classes to commence on specific dates- October, continuing until January at least.

The university hopes an enormous rise in the electricity cost will not eventually come to pass and has not accepted it yet, hoping that the government will provide relief for commodities like universities as it offers for households.

All Polish universities are facing the same challenges and plan to scale down activities on the university campuses.

The University of Gdansk plans to decrease lighting on its campus, delay the building of the sports centre, and turn down heating. The University of Bialystok intends to carry out online lectures and classes lasting a whole month- between 7 January and 6 February. The Catholic University of Lublin is considering limiting students to fewer buildings to keep lights off.

Some universities have energy-saving programmes. With these energy-saving programmes, they will not need to compromise their activities on the campuses.

Government support

The government has ensured universities of its support in the face of the offered electricity price hikes. At the inauguration of a new academic year on 3 October, the Minister of Education and Science, Przemuslaw Czarnek, said I am going to stand by the universities and bring down the inflated energy prices proposed for the following year.

The Ministry said the government is currently thrashing out the details of law supporting so-called vulnerable energy users, including education institutions and science institutes.

The rise in electricity costs would undoubtedly impact the quality of education as well. After the pandemic, this issue is like a new element driving the decay of university life. Educational institutions are familiar with the fact that online lectures are just a temporary solution to the problem. Online education may help save electricity but cannot compete with the effectiveness and impact of offline education.

Some universities also said that students are afraid to switch to online classes as it reduces university work to just writing texts from home at the cost of the university's less-tangible operations that only occur when people actually meet and interact.