The new programme aims at supporting existing Folk Universities, reformulating their educational mission and establishing new institutions.

Folk universities, by definition, promote an active involvement in social life and support their students to cope with contemporary challenges.  The programme covers a wide scope of interventions including:  the development of professional and social competences of the young unemployed, the education and counteracting of digital exclusion of senior citizens, the promotion of employability, validation of qualifications, the support to folk culture as a means of building local communities’ identity and the shaping of responsibility for „local  homelands” and development of local leaders.

The folk university settings are to be institutions based on the so-called Grundtvig concept with an open and friendly atmosphere aiming to support personal development and social activity.  Such settings will become attractive to less active individuals and offer them an opportunity for a better life. The programme corresponds with the basis of current policy on development of adult education, which aims to support, among other things, an active involvement and cultural creativity understood as a learning outcome.   Basic Outline of the Folk University Support Programme for 2020-2030 (Program Wspierania Rozwoju Uniwersytetów Ludowych na lata 2020-2030 (PWRUL):

The Programme’s Budget: 100.000.000 PLN (9.3 million PLN a year for the period of  2020-2030) has five priorities:

o    Priority 1. Infrastructural and programme support to the existing folk universities o    Priority 2. Support for the establishment of new and reactivation of former folk universities o    Priority 3. Support for networking and cooperation between folk universities and promotion of Grundtvig type education o    Priority 4. Support for the development of civic education and preservation of heritage in local communities o    Priority 5. Technical support.

All the current information on the Programme will be available on the Webpage (and on social media) of the National Freedom Institute – the Centre for Development of Civil Society (Narodowy Instytut Wolności – Centrum Rozwoju Społeczeństwa Obywatelskiego) https://www.niw.gov.pl/rada-ministrow-przyjela-program-wspierania-rozwoju-uniwersytetow-ludowych-na-lata-2020-2030/Source: Eurydice

Source:  Eurydice Unit Poland