The National Centre for Research and Development

  Project title

Socio-Economic University in Gdańsk as a friendly academic center

  Name of Beneficiary/Beneficiaries

Socio-Economic University in Gdańsk (project leader);
Sun Academy (Akademia Słońca) Krzysztof Frąszczak in Poznań (project partner)

  Name of programme

Operational Program “Knowledge, Education, Development”

  Competition

Accessible University 3

  Project value

PLN 3,564,992.47

  Funding value

PLN 3,458,042.69

  Project delivery period

01.10.2021 – 31.12.2023

Our team

Roman Gawrych – Rector of the Socio-Economic University in Gdańsk

Justyna Cherchowska – Plenipotentiary for Persons with Disabilities (from the beginning of the project until the end of September 2023)

Mariia Lutsyk – Plenipotentiary for Persons with Disabilities (from October to December 2023)

Katarzyna Frączewska-Wójt – Teaching Assistant

Aleksandra Płodziszewska – Teaching Assistant

Justyna Baczewska – Psychologist

Iwona Cwalińska – Psychologist

Emilia Mrozek – Educational Advisor

Hanna Olbryś – Administrative Employee

Daria Kochanowicz – Director of the Rector’s Office

Maciej Maciejewski – Supporting Technology Specialist

Results of our work

Issues addressed

The Socio-Economic University and its Partner, the Sun Academy represented by Mr. Krzysztof Frąszczak, have completed a two-year project designed to improve their accessibility by carrying out activities in five identified problem areas.

1. The university has expanded its offer in terms of accessibility and support for students with special educational needs.
2. Architectural access to the headquarters in Gdańsk and the branch in Ostrołęka has been provided. The architecture of the buildings and rooms occupied by the university have been adapted, which included removal of architectural barriers, addition of equipment and improvement of accessibility of teaching rooms.
3. The digital accessibility of the university has been improved through the purchase and development of supporting technologies – including the purchase of software, development of infrastructure functionalities for persons with disabilities of existing university resources.
4. Procedures for university accessibility in the area of educational support have been developed and implemented.
5. Comprehensive training has been developed and conducted for the staff in the field of awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities and the accessibility of the university.

Project beneficiaries

The outcomes of the project are used by academic teachers and students. The participation in the project and the training organized within it on the subject of disability have improved awareness and competences of the teaching and administrative staff. A number of architectural solutions have been implemented and rooms retrofitted to enable persons with disabilities to study on equal terms with healthy people. Students use IT systems, services, processes and university resources. We have made higher education more accessible to them by developing and implementing alternative methods thanks to which persons with disabilities can study – with adaptations tailored to their needs and health limitations.

Major implementation challenges

The biggest challenge during the project implementation was finding reliable suppliers of goods and services and the short implementation time. The implementation of a large number of tasks requires good organization and coordination of implementing entities. It was important to find suitable contractors, especially for lower value tasks. A significant challenge during the project implementation was price negotiations with suppliers of goods and services in times of dynamically increasing inflation, market uncertainty and costs.

Our advice to other applicants

The project should be implemented with activities well distributed over time, taking into account the perspective of price changes resulting from inflation and the costs of building materials and labor, among others.