Content uploaded by Marcin Górski
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Marcin Górski on Mar 15, 2022
Content may be subject to copyright.
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT IN LARGE EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS
ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE SILESIAN UNIVERSITY OF
TECHNOLOGY
Marcin Górski, Anna Waligóra
Silesian University of Technology (POLAND)
Abstract
Silesian University of Technology (SUT) in Poland developed its own original methodology of supporting
the application and realization of strategic educational projects.
Facing the needs of academic teachers but also new policy on enhancing administrative tools in order
to provide safety of the university, SUT designed and built a new unit – Project Management Center
(PMC) equipped with appropriate legislation, functionality and tools, including original administrative e-
platform.
The PMC of SUT was the first of such units at Polish universities and gave the start of creating similar
units in other universities.
The paper describes the function and role and achievements of the PMC in the processes of the project’s
proposals preparation, their realization and monitoring on the example of high-budget strategic
educational projects tailored to implement complementary and permanent changes in the education
process and many other crucial for the university aspects.
The paper shows the development and changes of the structure of project management at the Higher
Education Institution facing the new challenges appearing with new strategic educational projects.
Keywords: project, higher education, university administration, project management.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Silesian University of Technology is one of the oldest and largest universities in Poland. It is based
in Upper Silesia – the most industrial and most densely inhabited part of Poland. Due to the needs of
the industry – mainly mining, metallurgical and chemical industries in 1929, the Silesian Parliament
began formal proceedings to build and organise the Silesian University of Technology in Katowice. WW2
brutally stopped those plans. The idea returned at the beginning of 1945. SUT had been established in
Gliwice – the second biggest city of the region with traditions of engineering and technical education
connected with mining, metallurgic, mechanical, chemical, military and building engineering. With the
changes of the Polish boundaries, SUT had been founded by the professors of the famous Lviv
Polytechnic. Strong academic traditions and teaching methods together with the need of rebuilding after
the war country and rapidly developing heavy industry lead SUT to gain the top position in Poland. SUT
is continuing those traditions, actively anticipating and participating in the transformation of society,
industry, research and education. Thanks to this consequent policy of joining the tradition with high
standards of education, science and management SUT belongs to the elite group of 10 best Universities
in Poland awarded by the Minister with the status of the Research University [1]. The profile of the
university had changed over the last 3 decades from the largest educational Higher Education Institution
in the field of technologies in Poland with over 33 000 students into a research-oriented university with
18 000 students. It does not mean that SUT focused only on research neglecting the education – the
opposite – smartly designed and controlled transformation of the educational process has been a basic
tool for this crucial change. During this transition, realising the importance of high-quality education, SUT
had created new educational units: Institute of Physics - Centre for Science and Education, Institute of
Education and Communication Research, Foreign Languages Centre, as well as the Scientific and
Didactic Centre "Centre for Engineering Education in Rybnik" and the Scientific and Didactic Centre for
the Railway Transport. The new approach to educational processes based on internationalisation, close
cooperation with R&D industry with innovative teaching methods as PBL or STEM. Processes are being
supported by highly qualified pedagogists, psychologies, sociologies – specialists of education
employed as researchers and educators at SUT. This long-term policy is unique on the Polish scale.
SUT designed its transformation in research by extensive remodelling of the education profile. To
achieve that, SUT applied for several very large national and European projects supporting the
Proceedings of INTED2022 Conference
7th-8th March 2022
ISBN: 978-84-09-37758-9
7646
transformation in higher education with a budget from 1 to 10 million euros each. The realisation of those
strategic for university development projects demanded specially tailored solutions. This paper presents
the changes of the university administration directed to enhance the effectiveness of successful
application and facilitate the process of project realisation.
2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AT SUT
The end of communism in Poland in 1989 brought serious consequences to Polish universities. Central
planning and controlled distribution of funds for research and education had ended and public
universities had to compete on the academic free market with rapidly appearing private Higher
Education Institutions. Governmental policy in the area of redistribution of financial support to
universities changed into competition mode. In general, the era of projects in the Polish education
system appeared with the creation of the State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) in 1991 [2]. By
the definition, there were research projects and funds for academic infrastructure. Also in the 1990s
Poland started the process of integration of Polish Higher Education with Europe. In the 1990s only
some of the leading universities decided to start to sketch the changes in the programs of studies to
adjust them to European standards. This process had been supported by EU funds to Poland in the
form of special non-returnable aid within PHARE (Poland-Hungary Assistance for Restructuring
Economy) and then TACIS (Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States)
creating TEMPUS program [3]. Those projects supported academic infrastructure, administrative
reforms and mobility in order to modernize the educational process at Polish universities. It was a new
reality for Polish HEIs, which had to learn how to apply and realise projects, moreover projects
supervised by international, objective bodies. The largest Polish HEIs started firstly training
administrative staff in this direction and opening internal, usually central units related to the realisation
of projects. In most of the cases, it was connected with International Office. That was the case of SUT,
which run the educational project administration in the International Office, together with mobility
programmes. Research projects were supervised by the administration of the Rector responsible for the
Science and Research.
During the first decade of the 2000s number of projects at SUT reached the critical mass and it was
necessary to implement new means and tools, mainly at the beginning, meant as controlling tools for
the safety of the university and the Rector. It was also a moment of setting new standards unifying the
procedures for all types of projects. SUT Rector regulated firstly the process of obtaining rectors’ proxy
to lead the project. This new process demanded complementary processes, tools and trained staff.
On December 1st, 2010 SUT created a new unit – Project Management Center [4], where all types of
projects were supervised since the moment of obtaining Rector’s permission and proxy to apply for the
project funded by external financing institutions. It is worth underlining it was the first such Center at a
Polish university.
3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT CENTER AT SUT
The main tasks of the Project Management Center include:
• Coordinating the management of research and educational projects as well as selected
investment projects at the University,
• Providing support to project managers in the development of applications for project co-financing
and their verification,
• Providing support to entrepreneurs in the development of applications for project co-financing and
their verification in projects in which the Silesian University of Technology acts as a partner or
subcontractor,
• Preparation of applications for co-financing in competitions indicated by the Vice-Rector for
Science and Development,
• Conducting information activities at the University on competitions for project implementation and
taking initiatives regarding participation in competitions,
• Supervision over the formal implementation of projects,
• Monitoring and control of the implementation of project schedules and budgets,
• Supervision of project financing,
7647
• Improving the knowledge of project managers in the field of project management,
• Ongoing cooperation with project managers appointed by heads of units,
• Introducing sources of project financing to the University's IT systems,
In the beginning, the Project Management Center consisted of the following organizational units:
1 National Projects’ Office,
2 Structural Projects’ Office,
3 International Projects’ Office,
4 Infrastructural Projects’ Office,
5 Financial Services Office.
With the change of the governance at SUT in 2016, the needs of the new policy based on the supporting
university transformation with educational projects led to the change of the structure of the Center and
the creation of a new unit devoted to only educational projects – Educational Projects’ Office. The
structure had changed into the following:
1 National Projects’ Office,
2 Structural Projects’ Office,
3 International Projects’ Office,
4 Infrastructural Projects’ Office,
5 Educational Projects’ Office,
6 Financial Services Office.
The tasks of the Educational Projects’ Office include:
• Information and advisory activities for project managers in the field of obtaining external funds for co-
financing educational projects, including assistance in drawing up applications for project co-financing,
• Help for project managers in developing project budgets,
• Assistance for project managers at the stage of drawing up the consortium agreement as well as
drawing up and signing the project financing agreement,
• Verification of applications for project co-financing and issuing opinions on applications for powers
of attorney and authorizations for project managers,
• Checking applications and contracts according to checklists in relation to educational projects co-
financed from external sources,
• Records of submitted and approved applications for co-financing and contracts,
• Monitoring project evaluations,
• Consultancy for project managers in the field of project management,
• Reporting and statistical studies in relation to educational projects co-financed from external
sources.
Educational Projects’ Office (CZP5) was to enhance the application process for educational projects at
SUT. In 2016 SUT realised only 6 educational projects with a total budget of 3,4 million PLN, thanks to
CZP5 this number grew to 54 projects with a budget of over 70 million PLN in 2018 (Fig. 1). In between
those projects, there were two strategic projects of NCBIR (The National Center for Science and
Development), from POWER 3.5 action supporting education in Polish High Schools [5] with the
individual budget of up to 38 million PLN in the second project [6, 7].
Until 2020 Educational Projects’ Office supervised projects together with the Financial Services Office,
which is responsible for the control of the budget and eligibility of costs in the project.
The tasks of the Financial Service Office (CZP6) include:
• Verification of project budgets,
• Giving opinions on the application submitted by the project manager for the opening of a separate
bank account for the project,
7648
• Monitoring and control of financial liabilities and project implementation costs in order to establish
their compliance with the project budget,
• Support for project managers in the description of financial documents related to the
implementation of projects,
• Verification of the availability of funds in the project,
• Preparation of applications for payment, reports and reports in the financial part on the
implementation of projects and preparation of documents in this regard, verification of invoices or
notes settling expenditure under projects in the financial part,
• Development of statistics and financial reports on the implementation of projects for the needs of
financing institutions,
• Cooperation with bursary departments competent for accounting services for projects,
• Participation in audits and controls of projects,
• Preparation of document templates and verification of cost calculations,
• Supervising the implementation of budgets for projects handled by individual offices of the project
management center.
Figure 1. The total annual budget of projects supervised by the Educational Projects Office.
The application and realisation of those two very large, strategic projects based on the new model of
application then it was practised by this time at SUT. Project Management Center initiated the process
under the supervision of the V-ce Rector of Science and Development. Before this caesura, it was an
individual academic teacher or the Faculty applying for the project. In the case of POWER 3.5 projects,
the central administration has drawn the main assumptions and aims of those projects and selected a
team of specialists from the academic staff to support the process of the application. After the success
of the application recruited specialists created Project Teams and became responsible for the realisation
of the project in the educational merits, under supervision of V-ce Rector, Project Management Center
Director and Educational Projects’ Office acting with Financial Services Office. This model was found
as very effective and it acted very well with those two projects, but SUT had already planned the
application and realisation of further strategic educational projects. This is why it was decided to create
and train a new administrative unit within the Project Management Center, which would be responsible
for the realisation of such large projects in a comprehensive way, in one place, by one team. The new
unit, created in 2020 was named University-wide and Key Projects Implementation Office, and the new
structure of the Project Management Center of SUT took the following form:
1 National Projects’ Office,
2 Structural Projects’ Office,
3 International Projects’ Office,
4 Infrastructural Projects’ Office,
5 Educational Projects’ Office,
6 Financial Services Office,
7 University-wide and Key Projects Implementation Office.
0
20000000
40000000
60000000
80000000
100000000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
7649
Since 2021, due to the nature of infrastructural projects, it was decided to merge Infrastructural Projects’
Office with the newly created unit, so Project Management Center formed into final organisational shape:
1 National Projects’ Office,
2 Structural Projects’ Office,
3 International Projects’ Office,
4 University-wide and Key Projects Implementation Office,
5 Educational Projects’ Office,
6 Financial Services Office.
The tasks of the University-wide and Key Projects Implementation Office (CZP4) include supporting
projects, in particular:
• Keeping project documentation in the scope appropriate for the project manager,
• Contact with project partners in the scope of tasks performed in administrative matters, including
organizational and legal matters,
• Applying to appropriate units and organizational units, with the support of the project manager,
for the preparation of documents or providing information, opinions, analyzes and expert opinions
necessary to conduct the project, as well as commissioning the development of such documents
to external entities,
• Correspondence with relevant external institutions regarding applications for co-financing and
providing relevant explanations,
• Collecting and archiving project documents developed during the project preparation phase, to
the extent appropriate for the project manager,
• Preparation of project documents, including applications for co-financing as well as interim and
final reports,
• Preparing applications for the employment of people participating in the implementation of
projects,
• Describing accounting and settlement documents,
• Preparing inquiries and conducting procedures in the scope of implemented projects,
• Keeping the project budget,
• Preparation of beneficiary's applications for payment in the financial part and financial reports on
project implementation, in cooperation with the project manager, bursary and other offices of the
public logistics office,
• Timely submission of reports and other project documents to external institutions,
• Supporting and monitoring the process of project implementation and closure,
• Preparing reports in the administrative part, during the project durability period,
• Monitoring the maintenance of project output and result indicators after its completion,
• Storing and archiving documents developed during the preparation, implementation and
settlement of projects, to the extent appropriate for the project manager,
• Coordination of all work related to the application for infrastructure projects obtained from the
funds for environmental protection and implemented directly by the office,
• Concluding co-financing agreements with annexes to infrastructure projects obtained from the
funds for environmental protection,
• Supervision over the correct implementation of infrastructural projects from the funds of
environmental protection funds, implemented directly by the office for the benefit of many units,
• Cooperation with the department of the vice-rector for infrastructure and promotion.
In the definitive form, CZP4 took all the supervisory functions of CZP5 and CZP6 in the phase of projects’
realisation. CZP5 and other offices – relevantly to the source of the funds and the call support the
process of the application in the area of the analysis of the call documentation, legal and financial
7650
regulations connected with the call, but whole process of the realisation is handed to CZP4, which acts
together with appointed by the Rector specialists creating Project Team.
CZP4 took administrative control on crucial, strategic projects as projects connected with European
University Initiative: Erasmus + EURECA-PRO and H2020 RE-EURECA-PRO. CZP4 controls also the
budget and administrative processes in Excellence Initiative – Research University (IDUB), the
ministerial programme awarding 10 top Polish Universities.
CZP4 coordinates currently 6 strategic projects and IDUB programme realisation, with a total annual
budget reaching almost 28 million PLN (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. The total annual budget of projects supervised by the Office for Implementation
of University-wide and Key Projects.
PMC built its own informatic system (eCZP) administrating decision-making processes and control on
each stage of project realisation. This original SUT system has been awarded for the innovation in
administration with the Brand of Silesia award.
PMC organizes a regular, annual course on Project Management for SUT employees. Due to internal
regulations, it is obligatory to complete the course and obtain the certificate to be allowed to attempt the
application of any type of project at SUT. PMC, during 10 years trained over 1000 SUT employees.
Scientific and didactic staff is additionally supported by the representatives of the Project Management
Center at each of the Faculty, appointed by the Rector.
PMC organizes promotional actions, workshops, training and short-term courses on various types of
projects, dedicated to different groups of university stakeholders – from PhD students to experienced
researchers applying for ERC projects, faculty and central administration representatives.
SUT Rectorate supported the project-oriented policy by many pro-quality programs enhancing the
application process and projects’ realization.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The Silesian University of Technology, the most important university of Upper Silesia – the most
industrialized and densely inhabited region in Poland, one of the 10 Polish Research Universities, has
long traditions of utilising project approach and thinking in science and education, which certainly
resulted in, the unique in Polish scale, solutions for the administrative tools supporting projects.
Established in 2010 SUT Project Management Center was the first such institution in Poland and it was
loudly expressed inspiration to other important Polish universities in the implementation of similar
solutions.
Coordinated support for project and research management, ongoing information on current calls and
programmes, organizing training in preparing applications and managing projects has been also
appreciated by foreign universities and experts, for example, those supporting SUT application to the
programme of Excellence Initiative – Research University, where they found PMC as one of the
strongest assets of SUT.
Since 2016 SUT realise the transformation process, consequently using academic education as a key
element of building a strong and internationally recognised Research University. Due to remodelling the
educational processes, SUT decided to use large and complex educational projects as POWER 3.5
actions or European University Initiative.
0 PLN
10000 000 PLN
20000 000 PLN
30000 000 PLN
2020 2021
Budget for SUT
7651
To enhance the effective application and realisation of such projects, SUT created new dedicated
offices, initially Educational Projects’ Office which thought the academic community about the
possibilities given by educational projects. The establishment of this office increased the number of
realised educational projects from 6 to 54 within 3 years.
The next step in the transformation was connected with the realisation of large strategic projects in
education, connected with numerous tasks and a large budget. Such projects demanded special tools
demanded new tools – a place where those projects could be realised. This place was created in form
of the University-wide and Key Projects Implementation Office (CZP4). University-wide and Key Projects
Implementation Office realizes currently all administrative and financial processes connected to the 7
most important projects at SUT.
PMC and CZP4 are key elements of the strategic development and growth of the university. PMC
employs currently 36 project managers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors express their gratitude to the Project Management Center at the Silesian University of
Technology.
REFERENCES
[1] Sejm RP. Ustawa z dnia 20 lipca 2018 r. Prawo o szkolnictwie wyższym i nauce (Dz. U. 2018 poz.
1668). Akt powołania Uczelni Badawczych. Warszawa, Poland: Kancelaria Sejmu. 2018
[2] Archival website of the State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN), Accessed January 8, 2022,
Retrieved from http://kbn.icm.edu.pl/
[3] Tempus. (2004, 04 27). Raport z realizacji programu TEMPUS-PHARE w Polsce. Accessed
January 8, 2022. Retrieved from
http://www.tempus.org.pl/tempus.org.pl/raport_tempus_1_2_2bis.html
[4] Project Management Center, Silesian University of Technology. Accessed January 8, 2022.
Retrieved from https://www.polsl.pl/czp/en/
[5] NCBiR. (2020). Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju. Accessed January 8, 2022. Retrieved from
Szczegółowy Opis Osi Priorytetowych Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój 2014-2020:
https://www.ncbr.gov.pl/fileadmin/POWER/SzOOP/04_2020/SZOOP_POWER_wersja19.docx
[6] POWER 3.5/1 CIK Project Website, Silesian University of Technology, Accessed January 8, 2022.
Retrieved from http://www.cik40.polsl.pl
[7] POWER 3.5/2 P4S Project Website, Silesian University of Technology, Accessed January 8, 2022.
Retrieved from http://p4s.polsl.pl
[8] Website of The European University Alliance on Responsible Consumption and Production
(EURECA-PRO). Accessed January 8, 2022. Retrieved from https://www.eurecapro.eu
7652