Jubilee of the 25th anniversary of UITM. The Great Gala is behind us!

A ceremonial Gala at the Podkarpacka Philharmonic crowned the all-year-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of the University of Information Technology and Management. This special evening was accompanied by numerous memories and reflections on the path that the first non-public university in Rzeszów has gone through. There were also congratulations, wishes and plans for the future.

The ceremony took place on October 6th, 2021 at the Artur Malawski Podkarpacka Philharmonic. Among the guests were Konrad Fijołek – President of Rzeszów, Piotr Pilch – Deputy Marshal of the Podkarpackie Province and Rev. prof. Michał Heller – Director of the Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Kraków. The audience was also attended by Rectors of universities from the Podkarpackie voivodeship and guests from all over Poland, representatives of the University’s business partners, as well as a wide group of friends and former and current employees of UITM.

The originator of UITM, the current President of the University dr hab. Eng. Tadeusz Pomianek, prof. UITM, emphasized in his speech the importance of the University of Information Technology and Management for Poland and the Podkarpackie Province: Firstly, if we take into consideration only the state budget savings for educated full-time students, the state budget saved over a billion zlotys (PLN) thanks to this university. We have also created several hundred job vacancies and implemented numerous projects that served the region and the country. Secondly, if we add to UITM its daughter universities, we have 95,000 Graduates. These numbers show that we did not waste any time and tried to achieve something. The president also mentioned the numerous divisions that are taking place in Poland nowadays and talked about losing rationality in today’s world. He also noticed, quoting Rev. prof. Michał Heller, that education is the vaccine for stupidity – therefore, at the University of Information Technology and Management, every student, regardless of the field of study, has a few extra subjects. Their goal is to strengthen students’ creativity, fight with fake news, prevent health care and learn to understand historical processes.

During the Gala, the Rector of the University of Science and Technology in Krakow, prof. Jerzy Lis, who emphasized how proud UST is of its Graduate. As the expression of gratitude for his work for UITM, Rzeszów and the entire Polish higher education, Professor Lis awarded President Pomianek with the UST Rector’s medal. This medal is a medal for an innovator. I think that in some way you obtained this spirit of innovation – by placing the UST product – at the University of Science and Technology, so my history goes deeper than 25 years back, to 1973 and subsequent years, where the Professor as an outstanding graduate of UST at that moment was beginning his wonderful journey that led us here to this room – said the UST Rector.

The 25th anniversary was an opportunity to honour people and institutions that contributed to the development of UITM.

Titles Honorary professor of UITM were received by the following people: prof. dr hab. Janusz Starzyk, prof. dr hab. Eng. Zdzisław Hippe, dr hab. Eng. Jerzy Grzymała-Busse, prof. UITM and dr Wojciech Misiąg, prof. UITM.

Laurels of the 25th anniversary were collected by: Rev. prof. Michał Heller, prof. Anna Nowakowska, dr Zbigniew Inglot, Marta Półtorak, Beata Rapa, Jacek Ślusarczyk, Stanisław Motyl, Wojciech Bonowicz and Father Ludwik Wiśniewski.

In gratitude for many years of cooperation, the UITM authorities also awarded the title of A FRIEND of the University of Information Technology and Management over a dozen partners. The title went to, among others Podkarpackie Voivodeship, City of Rzeszów, Podkarpacka Philharmonic, Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre in Rzeszów, Castle Museum in Łańcut, COPERNICUS CENTER PRESS Publishing House, Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation, Foreign Language Centre of the University of Łódź, telc GmbH Frankfurt, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Bank Pekao SA, Deloitte Central Europe Business and Borgwarner Poland.

During the gala, the hosts: dr Grażyna Bochenek and dr Łukasz Błąd – took the audience on a sentimental journey in time, presented selected fragments from the university chronicle and invited lecturers and graduates of the University to the stage.

The 25th anniversary gala was connected with Inauguration of the academic year 2021/2022 and the entire gala ended with a concert of Four Seasons by dr hab. Jakub Jakowicz and the ARSO Ensemble band by concertmasters and soloists of the Orchestra of the Artur Malawski Podkarpacka Philharmonic in Rzeszów.