Hello, nice to SEA-EU! Welcome to the University of Gdańsk, European Maritime University
By Marek Grzybowski
The University of Gdańsk became the centre of European maritime science on February 21, 2025.The 5th anniversary of the SEA-EU alliance was combined with the inauguration of the Welcome Centre at the University of Gdańsk. The centre is the result of the project entitled “Hello, nice to SEA-EU! Welcome to the University of Gdańsk, the European Maritime University”.
The aim of the project is to raise the standard of service for foreigners at the University of Gdańsk. As part of the project, the language skills of the administrative staff have been increased. The Welcome Centre and Welcome Point have been established. These are places for comprehensive service for the foreign part of the academic community. The Welcome Centre will introduce Polish culture to foreigners.
The opening ceremony of the Welcome Centre was attended by academic staff and administration of the University of Gdańsk with the Rector, Prof. Piotr Stępnowski and Prof. Anna Jurkowska-Zeidler, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation, who implemented the project with a team of employees.
Present were businessmen, local government officials, among them Piotr Borawski – Deputy Mayor of Gdańsk; Prof. Marek Grzybowski – Chairman of the Polish Nautological Society, President of the Baltic Maritime and Space Cluster (the Cluster is a business partner of the alliance of European maritime universities: SEA-EU); Paweł Braun – President of the Management Board of the STARTER Incubator. From the very beginning, Marlena Rutkowska-Myzyk has been the SEA-EU project manager on behalf of the University of Gdańsk.
The Sea EU project is possible because there is involvement of the entire University of Gdańsk community, the rector’s authorities, all academic staff, students. As part of the project, two scientific cruises were carried out on the Oceanograf ship. One cruise was to Germany, Portugal and Spain and Croatia. Scientists from various universities conducted research in the Arctic zone during the second cruise. The University of Gdańsk participated in a scientific conference in Cologne, in which a business partner – the Baltic Sea Space Cluster – took part.
Two editions of scientific cruises have shown that this is a great platform for cooperation between European universities. This is a pioneering initiative. Sea EU’s activity was highly rated in the European Commission’s report on European universities. An important part of the celebrations at the University of Gdańsk were broadcasts from other universities involved in the SEA-EU project.
Erasmus+ is the EU programme supporting education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Its budget is €26.2 billion. This is almost double the amount allocated to the previous programme (2014-2020). The programme for 2021-2027 places a strong emphasis on social inclusion, green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.
The European University of the Seas – SEA-EU consortium consists of partners: University of Cadiz (Spain), University of Western Brittany (France), Christian-Albrecht University of Cologne (Germany), University of Split (Croatia) and University of Malta in Valletta (Malta). Since January 2023, new universities have been accepted to the alliance: University of the Algarve (Portugal), Parthenope University of Naples (Italy) and University Nord (Norway). SEA-EU 2.0 involves 9 universities educating over 150,000 students and employing 18,000 staff.
More: https://sea-eu.ug.edu.pl/wspolpraca/