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5. Foreign students and exchanges

Since 1957 student exchanges with other Communist countries have been augmented by the operation of several educational exchange programs with non-Communist countries, including the United States. The latter have been negotiated both on a bilateral government basis and on a direct basis by individual colleges, universities, and research centers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science, Higher Education, and Technology exercise joint supervision over these programs in Poland, although other ministries and government agencies cooperate in the selection of students for training abroad and in the sponsorship of foreign students in local institutions of higher learning. Figure 43 shows the fluctuations, but general rise, in the number of foreign students enrolled in Polish higher schools during the decade of the 1950's by selected countries of origin. Of the total of 2,576 foreign students acknowledged by the regime in 1970/71, 45% were said to be enrolled in higher technical schools, and 1.5% in medical academies.

On the basis of published data, Poland's effort to train foreign students — especially those of developing countries — and to reap political or other benefits thereby, has never been as extensive as that of some other Eastern European countries; even Bulgaria, for example, hosted over 3,000 foreign students in 1970/71. Nevertheless, the overall total as officially made public probably understates the number of foreign nationals undergoing some form of training and schooling in Poland by as much as 150%. The total of 2,576 in 1970/71, for example is known to

exclude all vocational trainees, and certainly such categories as full-time students of Communist theory and practice sponsored by party-to-party programs. Moreover, a highly developed program for young North Vietnamese has been in operation since the mid-1960's; this includes theoretical schooling as well as practical training in factories, shipyards, research institutions, and medical facilities. In 1970/71 the contingent of North Vietnamese trainees of all kinds was variously estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000. The total number of Polish students abroad is not available; the number of postgraduate students studying abroad has fluctuated from a high of 1,640 in 1956 to a low of 321 in 1960. In the 1970/71 academic year there were 803 Polish students engaged in university studies abroad, the largest single group being in the U.S.S.R.

I. Artistic and cultural expression

Polish artistic and intellectual expression throughout the country's history has been largely the adaptation of Western European trends to national needs and aspirations. Polish culture reached the peak of its development in the first half of the 19th century, during the period of Partition, when writers and artists fused an intensely patriotic spirit with the principles of Western European romanticism. But in every century of the past millennium the major intellectual movements and artistic style stirring the West have been the decisive forces in Polish art and learning. Shortly after World War II, the traditional pattern and structure of cultural development became threatened by a Communist regime determined to substitute Soviet for Western models in the arts and sciences, Marxism-Leninism for Roman Catholicism and Western humanism, and regimentation for intellectual freedom. With the initial liberalization of Communist rule after October 1956, Polish artistic and cultural life reentered the Western mainstream. Seemingly, the creative intelligentsia were in a unique position to synthesize East-West views and so serve as a bridge between the two worlds. Although this concept of Poland's cultural role soon collided with Soviet reassertions of its own primacy in ideological matters, it has continued to inspire the work of much of the creative intelligentsia. The regime of Edward Gierek, in power since December 1970, has made no significant formal departures in cultural policy, but its liberal interpretation of standing "rules," willingness to harness cultural traditions in the national interest even when they clash with Marxism-Leninism, and a pragmatic attitude toward the creative intelligentsia

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