In 2014 the Jagiellonian University celebrated its 650th anniversary. The description of the university’s history on the jubilee website, however, makes no mention of the first female students – even though it was the first Polish university to welcome women.

The following paper presents recollections of a seminar by Professor Józef Andrzej Gierowski 1965–1967 by Kazimierz Przyboś.

An interview with Professor Stefan Skowronek (1928–2019), a historian, archaeologist, and classical philologist, particularly renowned as an expert in numismatics, about his education in his hometown of Przeworsk, studies at the Jagiellonian University and his scholarly career.

An interview with professor Maciej Salamon, a historian, medievalist, and Byzantinist, renowned expert in numismatics, about his childhood home and studies in Cracow, academic career at the University of Silesia and Jagiellonian University, as well as study trips.

Background: At the Department of Medical Education, Centre for Innovative Medical Education at Jagiellonian University Medical College, a completely remote OSCE (e-OSCE) was con-ducted for the first time using the Microsoft Teams platform. 255 test takers were tasked with presenting their communication and clinical skills in order to assess clinical reasoning.
Aim: Analysis of the assessment of the OSCE adaptation to the requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic at the Department of Medical Educations in the form of the e-OSCE from the students’ perspective.
Methods: Discussion of the OSCE modification was carried out among 6th-year medical students and graduates undergoing validation of their foreign medical degrees. In order to assess students’ opinions of the e-OSCE, we used questionnaires. The Statistica 12.0 program was used to analyse the results.
Results: According to 91.57% of respondents, the e-OSCE was well-prepared. 60% of students strongly agree and 29.47% rather agree that the order of the stations was appropriate and clear. A majority of respondents rated the e-OSCE as fair. 66.32% of respondents strongly agree and rather agree that the proportions of communication and clinical skills were appropriate. The vast majority of the participants of the exam (81.05%) had enough time for individual stations. A statistically significant (p <0.0001) correla-tion was found between the type of classes and preparation for the e-OSCE. For 61.05% of respondents, the Laboratory Training of Clinical Skills course was the best preparation for students taking the e-OSCE. Taking into account the stressfulness of the OSCE, only 15.96% of students found the online form more stressful than the traditional (in-person) exam.
Conclusions: The e-OSCE in students’ opinions was well-organized. Informing test-takers prior to the e-OSCE about the role of invigilators assessing individual stations should be improved. The e-OSCE has been proven to be suitable for assessing a wide range of material and validating communication and clinical skills in appropriate proportions. The e-OSCE is fair according to examinees’ opinion. The study proves that even in a pandemic, it is possible to prepare an online exam without exposing examiners and examinees to the dangers posed by COVID-19.

The article is devoted to the memory of Professor Franciszek Ziejka, Rector of Jagiellonian University (1999–2005) and presents the most important areas of his outstanding activity. The Professor was a historian of literature, an expert in Polish culture of XIX century – especially so called “Young Poland” period – and an excellent promoter of Polish literature and history. He had a significant impact on the development of academic life in Poland, as Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and initiator of changes to the regulations governing higher education in Poland. Professor Franciszek Ziejka passed away 19 of July 2020.

On November 2, 2018, an outstanding Polish medievalist Jerzy Lesław Wyrozumski died in Kraków; he was born on March 7, 1930 in Trembowla (now Ukraine). He graduated in 1955 with a degree in history at the Jagiellonian University. He wrote his master's thesis and doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Roman Grodecki. In 1981 he received the title of professor; he was dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History in the years 1981–1987, and from 1987 to 1990 he was the prorector of the Jagiellonian University. He published over 600 scholarly books, articles and reviews.

The article presents personal memories of Professor Aleksander Koj’s alumni. Professor Aleksander Koj was a world-class biochemist of significant scientific achievements, a renowned authority in the field of acute-phase response regulation and acute-phase proteins. He was an excellent academic, a true Master, admired and followed by many Polish biochemists. Thrice he served as the Rector of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He navigated the University through a difficult time of political transformation in Poland, modernized the management system of the University and led to the commencement of the construction of the new University campus. He was the co-creator and the first Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland. He will be remembered as a devoted community worker aiming at strengthening the bond between the Polish community abroad and our homeland, propagating knowledge, promoting the concept of European integration, democracy and tolerance, as well as the collaboration between scientists, artists and men and women of culture. He was wise, righteous, and noble. Many had the honor of calling him their friend, and a great many saw in him a moral authority.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic contributed to the implementation of changes in the methodology of conducting many courses at medical universities. Achieving learning outcomes was associated with self-discipline and an increased portion of students’ independent work. The aim of the study is to analyze the adaptation of teaching methods to the requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic at the Department of Medical Education of Jagiellonian University Medical College. The university authorities, instructors and students made every effort not to neglect their education. The Microsoft Teams platform allowed for the efficient organization of remote classes. Lectures, activities based on dialogue, brainstorming and role- -playing were conducted via the Internet. Presentations and short films were made available to students. The safety of individuals participating in classes was guaranteed by password access and an invitation sent prior to an online meeting. Remote learning allowed for the synthesis and deepening of students’ knowledge, improvement of communication skills and development of clinical thinking as future doctors. The disadvantages of online education was the inability to improve practical skills, especially on phantoms, under the direct supervision of a trained instructor.

Adam Łomnicki, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and Academia Europaea, passed away on 15th December 2021. Adam Łomnicki was born in Warsaw, as a descendant of famous Łomnicki scholars - naturalists and mathematicians. He spent his childhood and youth in Sokołów Małopolski and Zakopane, where he completed his secondary school. In the years 1952–1957 he studied biology at the Jagiellonian University, where despite the domination of Soviet biology at the time, which denied the existence of scientific genetics and evolutionism, he had the opportunity to learn about these fields. His first job was at the Department of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences; he worked in the Tatra Mountains. Soon after graduating, Adam Łomnicki spent a few months at Oxford with one of the greatest ecologists of the time, Charles Elton. On his advice and under the supervision of prof. Roman Wojtusiak, he conducted his PhD thesis on the factors determining distribution of arachnids and coleopterans in the Tatra Mts. and graduated in 1961. His habilitation, completed in 1971, concerned the population ecology of Roman snails and led to very important conclusions on the effect of differences between individuals in population regulation (published in Nature). At that time, there was a crisis in environmental biology, caused by the contradictions between the principles of evolutionary theory and the existence of altruism and population regulation. An attempt to resolve these contradictions was Wynne Edwards' concept of group selection (1962), which, thanks, among others, to Łomnicki, turned out to be wrong. The concept of kin selection, put forward by W.D. Hamilton in 1964, of reciprocal altruism by Robert Trivers (1971) and models based on game theory by Maynard-Smith and Price (1973) resolved conflicts with behavioural biology, but it was Łomnicki's concept, based on mathematical models and supported by empirical studies showing the importance of individual variation in a population, that finally solved one of the most important problems of modern evolutionary biology and ecology – regulation of population numbers; Łomnicki's concept, presented in several publications, culminated in the book “Population ecology of Individuals” (Princeton University Press, 1988). Adam Łomnicki was not only a researcher, but also a master and teacher of a few generations of Polish evolutionary biologists and ecologists. With great enthusiasm he organized ecological seminars, national Schools of Mathematical Modeling in Biology (1975–1985), Evolutionary Biology Workshops (4 times a year in 1995–2012) later transformed into several-day international Polish Evolutionary Conferences. He was an excellent lecturer, and author or co-author of the most important Polish textbooks in the field of population ecology, evolutionary genetics and mathematical statistics for natural scientists. In 1981–1988 he was director of the Institute of Environmental Biology (now Institute of Environmental Sciences) of Jagiellonian University; during the dramatic change of political system in Poland, Łomnicki contributed to the modern organization of this institution and to the way of conducting university studies in modern Western style. Privately, he was very sociable, had a great sense of humor, was interested in history and skiing.

The author presents a series of publications by Franciszek Ziejka related to his stays in France and Portugal in 1970–1973 (Aix-en-Provence), 1979–1980 (Lisbon) and 1984–1988 (Paris). At that time, Ziejka disseminated knowledge about the language, Polish literature and culture in those universities, and at the same time, in libraries and especially archives, he undertook research on the culture of these countries and the presence of Polish literature and culture. The result was groundbreaking studies on the relationships and contacts of Polish artists and writers with representatives of Western creative circles. In these studies, Ziejka expanded our traditional knowledge of the presence of Polish culture in the West and discovered new traces of it, including those sometimes associated with such famous artists as Chopin, Joseph Conrad or Zygmunt Krasiński.

It was with great sadness that we learned on 18 October 2021 of the death of the distinguished Italian Slavist and Polonist Sante Graciotti, professor emeritus of the Sapienza University of Rome. This personal tribute, written on the first anniversary of his death, begins with a recollection of the ceremony of awarding Sane Graciotti the title of Doctor honoris causa by the Jagiellonian University. on 16 December 1986. The laudatio, delivered by Professor Tadeusz Ulewicz, presented our guest's achievements and the main stages of his academic life. It began with the study of Italian philology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and came to a turning point at La Sapienza in Rome, where he pivoted towards Slavic philology. The youthful fascination became a lifelong commitment which earned him the acclaim and honours that are the crown of an academic career. Finally, he concentrated his attention on Poland, Polish history and culture, and the history of Polish-Italian cultural relations. In his explorations of the new field, he could count on the friendly assistance of his Polish colleagues, especially Tadeusz Ulewicz, a historian of Polish literature with a profound knowledge of the historical ties between Poland and Italy. The respect they had for each other's work led to the promotion of Graciotti's research in Poland and the awarding of the doctorate honoris causa to Tadeusz Ulewicz by the Università Cattolica in Milan.

The article analizes Stanisław Pigoń’s essay ‘Some Golden Thoughts on the Chair of Polish Literature’ written to commemorate the 600th jubilee of the Jagiellonian University. Stanisław Pigoń (1885-1968), Distinguished Profesor of Polish Literature, had it published in the Cracow weekly Życie Literackie in May 1964; its expanded version was published two years later in a volume of essays Drzewiej i wczoraj [In the Old Days and Yesterday] in 1966. Both versions were published again in a a bibliophile volume in December 2018 (the manuscript and the printed versions). At the heart of Pigoń’s essay are the twin ideas of freedom and the ‘spiritual life of the nation’, borrowed from Juliusz Słowacki’s epic poem The Spirit King. The article examines Pigoń’s key theme and the manner in which, as he saw it, it shaped the lectures of the most eminent professors of Polish literature in the 19th and 20th century (Michał Wiszniewski, Karol Mecherzyński, Stanisław Tarnowski, Ignacy Chrzanowski). Pigoń’s survey ends in 1910, but, as the author of the article observes, by that time the ideas he so strongly believed in were as relevant as ever.