The inauguration of the new academic year 2025/2026 at the University of Economics in Katowice was held under the motto "More than knowledge. The university as a community of responsibility." During her speech, HM the Rector prof. dr hab. inż. Celina M. Olszak emphasized: "We live in a world that changes faster than we can sometimes comprehend. Climate crises, geopolitical tensions, technological revolutions, and profound social transformations are shaping a new order - not only global but also local. In such a reality, universities can no longer remain mere observers of change; they must become its co-creators. A university, especially an economic one, should be a space of responsibility where ideas emerge that shape new economic and social models, as well as decision-making systems and the values we follow as a community."
Once again, we begin a new academic year. It is a time for learning and research, but also a moment of reflection on a fundamental question: what is a university in a world of uncertainty? The inauguration is a symbolic moment. On the one hand, it connects us to the past, academic tradition, values, and mission; on the other, it points us toward the future – full of challenges but also opportunities, requiring courage, wisdom, and responsibility. Especially today, when the world is becoming ever more complex and unpredictable, the university must ask itself not only what we teach, but why and in what direction we wish to move forward as an academic community. This is the issue I wish to place at the heart of my words addressed to our entire academic community.
We live in a world changing faster than we are sometimes able to comprehend. Climate crises, geopolitical tensions, technological revolutions, and profound social transformations are shaping a new order – global, but also local. In such a reality, universities can no longer remain mere observers of change; they must become its co-creators. A university – especially one focused on economics – should be a space of responsibility, where ideas are born that shape new economic and social models, as well as decision-making systems and values that guide us as a community.
In his book “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order,” Ray Dalio argues that the cycles of history are not accidental. They repeat themselves because they result from human decisions, institutional reactions, and collective beliefs. Nations and societies collapse not because they lack resources, but because they fail to respond adequately to new challenges. They do not invest in education, knowledge, innovation, or the common good. They fail to learn from the past. Dalio also shows that at the center of every great transformation – whether constructive or destructive – stands the human being, and thus also the institutions that shape this human being, including universities. Responsibility, therefore, becomes today the key challenge for academic institutions. It is worth reflecting on what this responsibility truly means in our daily functioning.
Responsibility, understood in its deepest sense, is not merely an ethical duty or a social function assigned to an institution. It is, above all, an existential form of being present in the shared world – a manifestation of care for the future we are co-creating. It is care that extends also to those we do not yet know, who will live in the reality shaped by our choices and decisions today.
Responsibility is the ability to create meaning and narrative, linking who we are with what we do. It is not so much a reaction to the past, but a response to what lies ahead – a conscious, thoughtful way of being in relation to others and to the world. The university is therefore not only an institution; it is a way of being in a community responsible for meaning, for the future, for others.
In a world where indifference is common and silence convenient, the deepest expression of academic responsibility is the courage to think. Above all, it means readiness to think in the long-term perspective. The university must go beyond the logic of short-term profit, political cycles, and immediate needs. It must create visions of development that are sustainable, systemic, and resilient to crises. In a world of “here and now,” we have the duty to think about “there and later.” That is why the responsibility of the university is a daily form of care for the world – through words, research, questions, and presence.
The university’s responsibility also encompasses, perhaps above all, the world of values. In times of tension, radicalization, and disinformation, the university cannot be a space of neutrality; it must be a place where truth does not fear complexity, and knowledge does not close itself within technocracy. Responsibility today means caring for the ethical dimension of knowledge. In this context, one cannot ignore the warning of George Orwell’s “1984,” where truth becomes the object of manipulation and language a tool of control. Slogans such as “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” or “Ignorance is strength” are not merely literary fiction but warnings against a world where independent thinking disappears and reality is replaced by propaganda. Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” This diagnosis is disturbingly relevant today, in an era of disinformation, polarization, and technologies shaping our perception of the world faster than reflection. In such a world, the responsibility of the university is not limited to imparting knowledge but extends to cultivating the courage of thought and a language resistant to manipulation. The university must be a place that safeguards the meaning of words, teaches how to distinguish knowledge from opinion, argument from slogan. In the age of “newspeak” – a language polished but empty – the university must be a bulwark against an Orwellian reality. It must be a space where truth does not fear complexity, and thinking does not yield to convenience.
The responsibility of the university is also its ability to foster relationships with its surroundings. A university cannot exist for itself alone. It should be a source of knowledge for the region, the country, and the economy. It should listen to the needs of local governments, businesses, and civic organizations, and respond to them with humility and professionalism. It should co-create local resilience and global competitiveness, caring for the development of future competencies. The digital economy, green transition, Economy 5.0, artificial intelligence, and management under conditions of uncertainty – these are not abstract concepts from reports. They are the reality our graduates must understand and help shape. Our task is to prepare them not only for the professions that already exist but above all for those that are yet to emerge.
That is why our University co-authors the White Paper of Transformation, conducts research on the economics of transformation, supports SMEs, startups, and the public sector, and collaborates with local governments and cultural institutions. We are active within the BAUHAUS4EU European University Alliance, where we jointly create study programs, research projects, and mobility opportunities. This is not only a consortium of universities but a community of thinking about the Europe of tomorrow – a Europe that is open, sustainable, and knowledge-based. Within this alliance, we implement the idea of a university that transcends national and disciplinary boundaries, building a space of truly European education, research, and social dialogue.
Dalio also reminds us that the higher the level of education, innovation, and ethics, the greater a nation's resilience to crises. Societies that invest in knowledge and institutional cohesion can navigate turbulent waters effectively. Here again, the university emerges as an anchor in an uncertain world – an institution not only of knowledge but also of reason, reflection, and courage. We do not know what the world will look like in 30 or 50 years. But we do know that it will depend on the kind of universities we have today. Passive or courageous? Defending the status quo, or co-creating a better order?
Therefore, as rector, researcher, and member of this community, I wish to inaugurate the new academic year as a year of responsibility and reflection – of bold and united thinking, in which the university becomes a light amid uncertainty, a space of encounter, and a place where thinking itself is a form of care for the world. To all of you – students, doctoral candidates, academic, teaching, and administrative staff, as well as our partners and friends – I wish that this new academic year will be a time of authentic responsibility, inspiration, mutual trust, and a profound sense of meaning.
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