Supported by our lawyers, the Wrocław-based campus of Coventry University Wrocałw was granted a permit to recruit non-EU students using a simplified procedure. The decision is valid for two years and it took nearly nine months to obtain it. What was unique about this project?
Usually the permitting process is quite straightforward, provided that the university is a Polish institution and has run educational programmes for at least five years preceding the application. What is more, the majority of Polish universities retain enough research staff to be considered research-oriented and as such authorized to recruit non-EU students. In the case of Coventry University Wrocław the challenge involved adapting the Polish procedure to the operating model of an off-shore campus of a university based abroad.
‘The core of the precedent was related to the nature of the applicant – a campus of a foreign university which was the first one to institute the procedure in Poland’, says Dr. Tomasz Lewandowski, who participated in the project. ‘First of all, we had to work with the authorities in the process of elaboration of their position regarding the applicability of the procedure to this specific case’, adds Dr. Lewandowski.
To obtain the final permit, the quality of legal argumentation was of key importance. This aspect was highly appreciated by, for instance, the Border Guard, which was among the authorities consulted on the application. ‘Our expertise in the field of higher education was extremely useful in explaining the nature of client’s operations, especially in dealings with the Border Guard who explicitly stated that they would wish all applicants to adhere to such a high standard’, adds Mateusz Stańczyk, also working on the project team.
Previously our team supported Coventry University Wrocław in the process to register its Wrocław campus and obtain the consent of the Minister of Science and Higher Education. To read more about that project click here.
