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The subject of this article concerns discrimination occurring at Polish medical universities. The article is based on a questionnaire conducted by the authors in the first months of 2023 among students of medical universities from all over the country. One of the most frequently cited reasons of discrimination was gender and it should be emphasized that this type of discrimination affected both, women and men. The authors tried to determine whether students are familiar with the possibilities to report cases of discrimination to the competent authorities and what the reasons are behind refraining to do so. The study was also aimed to determine the reaction of universities for cases of discriminatory behavior reported by students and whether, in their opinion, these actions are sufficient. The answers to abovementioned questions provided by the surveyed students prove that discrimination at medical universities is a common and multidimensional problem.

The accessibility of higher education entities in Poland has been growing. Multiple projects concerning its architectural, digital and communicative dimensions of accessibility are being conducted at public and private universities. Nevertheless, they almost always focus on ensuring the accessibility for recipients of educational services (graduate and postgraduate students), whereas
the needs of university teachers and researchers are marginalised or ignored.

Participation in scientific events is one of the basic activities undertaken as part of scientific activity. Active participation already undertaken by students, but above all by researchers, gives the participants the unique opportunity to confront views with other people, exchange experiences and discuss ideas and therefore enables the development of science as such.

This article presents challenges concerning the participation of persons with special needs (f. e. persons with disabilities) in scientific events. The analysis of relevant legal regulations as well as the results of research on accessibility of conferences organized by Polish universities have been presented. This work also contains practical tips for organisers of scientific events, who are interested in meeting the accessibility conditions.

Pathology in the academic community is not an isolated phenomenon. The various dysfunctional phenomena that appear in this community, encompassing many kinds of behaviour, have nothing to do with scientific truth or the ethos of the scholar. One such situation is the phenomenon of plagiarism in science, the genesis of which consists of numerous factors, of an institutional, institutional-organisational, group and individual nature. And in spite of the existence of relevant laws that speak of copyright, intellectual property, or misappropriation of authorship or misrepresentation of authorship of all or part of another’s work, there is no legal definition of plagiarism, and the phenomenon has still not been eliminated from contemporary science. This study analyses plagiarism from a victimological perspective, presenting what a victim of plagiarism feels when he or she has knowledge of such an incident. It uses a qualitative analytical method from the sociology of law, namely case analysis.

The main subject of consideration in the article is the legislative solution provided for in Art. 275 sec. 1a of the Act of July 20, 2018. Law on Higher Education and Science with the following content: “It is not a disciplinary offense to express religious, ideological or philosophical beliefs”, which was introduced on December 10, 2021. The author exhaustively discusses the essence and axiology of disciplinary proceedings against academic teachers, and then presents the purpose of introducing the indicated regulation, criticizing both the imprecise premises for the application of this legislative solution, as well as discussing practical procedural problems, in the conclusions demanding the repeal of the introduced provision. The new provision may in practice drastically limit the disciplinary liability of academic teachers, and in the final part it illustrates its considerations with statistical data on the application of Art. 275 sec. 1a of the Act in question.

If a university employee commits acts against the sexual freedom of other employees or students, the problem of the university’s liability for damages arises. This liability finds legal grounds in the provisions of the Civil Code (primarily Article 430 of the Civil Code), as well as in the provisions of the Labor Code regarding the employer›s liability for sexual harassment, which is a violation of the principle of equal treatment in employment. Therefore, the Author analyzes the premises for the application of these provisions, their mutual relations, and the most important practical problems related to their application, including, in particular, the problem of the relationship between the performance of entrusted activities and causing damage, which is of fundamental importance in the context of Art. 430 CC.