Chair (Latin cathedra, Greek kathedra, "seat", Polish katedra) is an equivalent of an academic department in Poland, a division of a university or school faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline. Originally, a cathedra is the chair or throne of a bishop, a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Roman Catholic Church.
University organisation in Poland comprises the following units:
- University (Uniwersytet)
- Faculty (Wydział)
- Institute (Instytut)
- Chair (Katedra)
- Centre (Zakład)
- Research Group (Pracownia, Zespół)
- Centre (Zakład)
- Chair (Katedra)
- Institute (Instytut)
- Faculty (Wydział)
Usually degree programmes are conducted within the framework of institutes. However, some specialised programmes may be conducted by independent chairs, while programmes with large variety of disciplines involved (especially medical and legal studies) may be conducted directly by a faculty - in this case, faculty may be composed of chairs with no institutes in its structure. Interdepartmental individual programmes exist at some universities, where a programme of studies is agreed individually with student's supervisor and courses from various faculties, institutes and chairs are available.
Famous quotes containing the words chair and/or academic:
““Peace, woman,” Mr. Crawley said, addressing her at last. The bishop jumped out of his chair at hearing the wife of his bosom called a woman. But he jumped rather in admiration than in anger.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“If we focus exclusively on teaching our children to read, write, spell, and count in their first years of life, we turn our homes into extensions of school and turn bringing up a child into an exercise in curriculum development. We should be parents first and teachers of academic skills second.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)