Students in Exile: From Emergency Reception to Sustainable Higher-Education Pathways

Full Professor of Social Sciences Department of Economics
CRASH Center For Research on Social Change and Human Mobility

Prof. Izabela Grabowska, Ph.D., D.Sc. is a Professor of Social Sciences, sociologist, and economist. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Warsaw, an M.A. in Economics from University College Dublin, and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Wrocław. Her professorial proceedings in social sciences were conducted by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN). She is a recipient of the Foundation for Polish Science Fellowship and has held research fellowships at Humboldt University in Berlin (ERC grant), Utrecht University (visiting professor), and University College London (visiting scholar).

She has supervised seven completed Ph.D. dissertations and over 70 master's theses. Professor Grabowska is the author of more than 60 scholarly publications in prestigious international and Polish outlets. She has been awarded numerous competitive research grants, including Horizon Europe (as Scientific Coordinator of the global consortium for the Link4Skills project www.link4skills.eu), Horizon 2020 (MIMY project, as leader of the Polish team), and several major grants from the National Science Centre of Poland (OPUS, Sonata Bis www.mymigration.academy), Harmonia, and KBM). She is co-creator and first Principal Investigator of European University Alliance EUonAIR: AI in Curricula, Smart UniverCity and (Return) Mobility www.euonair.eu and mobility assessment dashboard www.mymobility.academy.

In 2021, she joined Kozminski University (ALK) as a member of the Department of Economics, where she founded and now leads the CRASH Center (Center for Research on Social Change and Human Mobility).

Between 2005 and 2021, she served as assistant professor and university professor at SWPS University. From 2016 to 2021, she was Director of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School at SWPS. She also established and led two major research initiatives: the Youth Research Center / Youth in the Centre Lab (2015–2019) and the Mobility Research Group (2020–2021).

Her research focuses on labor markets, human capital, international labor migration, and careers. Her long-term studies emphasize the role of international work experience in shaping human capital, especially social competences, and explore the dynamics of social remittances in transnational contexts. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Work, Employment and Society, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Europe-Asia Studies, International Migration, and Social Policy and Society. Her books have appeared with key academic publishers including Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, UCL Press, Amsterdam University Press, and Scholar.

From 2008 to 2019, she was actively involved in the governance of IMISCOE, the largest European research network on migration and integration. Since 2009, she has served as an expert for the European Commission on the European Mobility Partnership/Laboratory and ESCO (European Classification of Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations), and currently contributes to the Employment Labour Agency and EURES. For over a decade, she has provided training through EY (Bologna, Brussels) for public employment services across Europe.

More about her work can be found at: www.izabelagrabowska.org

Svetlana Gudkova, Ph.D. is a professor at the Management Department and the Head of Entrepreneurship and International Management Programs at Kozminski University. She served as an expert at Polish Accreditation Committee (PKA) and Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and Director of Kozminski International Business School. Her research interests focus on entrepreneurship, multi-generational family businesses and assurance of learning processes in higher education institutions. Svetlana Gudkova was a visiting scholar at Yale School of Management and has taught at various institutions such as ISM International School of Management (Germany), Hebei Finance University (China), Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria (Canada). Her works in entrepreneurship and business has been published in numerous scientific journals and monographs. In 2018 she was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit by the President of Poland for exemplary public service that goes above and beyond the call of duty and in 2015 the Medal of the National Education Committee awarded by the Minister of Education of Poland for exemplary service for education.

She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Kozminski University and a member of the Sustainable Development Center. She specializes in the effectiveness of public interventions, policy evaluation, and evidence use in decision-making. In the context of responsible research, she explores how AI—especially generative tools—can strengthen credibility and relevance by improving evidence synthesis, methodological transparency, and the responsible uptake of findings, while addressing risks such as bias and accountability. She contributes to international initiatives including IbeReGloMi, a project advancing business curricula through an integrated focus on internationalisation, ethics, responsibility, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship aligned with the UN SDGs, and ENERGiES, a European programme developing a progressive training pathway to promote doctoral research in sustainable entrepreneurship and managerial innovation.

Lina Abromaitiene is an academic competence development project manager at Kaunas University of Technology, responsible for supporting the professional development of university teachers. Her professional interests include the development of inclusive teaching and learning practices, flexible learning design, and innovative pedagogical approaches in higher education.

Maciej Pietrzykowski, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the International Competitiveness Department of the Institute of International Business and Economics, Poznań University of Economics and Business. His work has long focused on local and regional development—including the competitiveness of local and regional economies—with a strong practice-oriented angle. In recent years, he has deepened and systematized his quantitative approach, placing greater emphasis on quantitative economics and conducting detailed analyses across territorial and sectoral segments, while expanding his research agenda to the resilience of local and regional economies.
Dr. Pietrzykowski’s interests also include entrepreneurship and economic and monetary union. He currently coordinates the international EXIL project, which explores the integration and social inclusion of displaced students within higher education institutions, combining institutional, social, and community perspectives.
As an academic teacher, researcher, consultant, trainer, and advisor, he collaborates with the Association of Polish Cities and the Partners for Local Government Foundation. He is a graduate of the government’s TOP 500 Innovators program (with studies at the University of California, Berkeley). In 2015, he served as an expert at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, advising on rural development. He is proficient in statistical and GIS software and holds an advanced PRINCE2 project management certification. He has participated in over 20 international Erasmus projects—coordinating eight at the consortium level—and serves as PUEB Program Director of the Transition, Innovation and Sustainability Environments (TISE) Erasmus Mundus project.

Yuliia Vasylenko, sociologist, head of the Center for Monitoring and Research at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine) 

Marija Mitic is a Policy Analyst at the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) unit of the European Commission. Marija coordinates feedback to policy in the unit and she is also responsible for several MSCA initiatives supporting researchers at risk and academic freedom. Marija’s background is in intercultural studies and European higher education policy.

Dr. Christophe Terrasse is Director of the International Projects Department at EFMD, responsible for the organisation’s portfolio of EU-funded capacity-building projects in higher education. Since 2012, EFMD has coordinated or contributed to more than 70 projects in over 60 countries, supporting universities and business schools in areas such as internationalisation, entrepreneurship education, digital transformation, and the role of higher education institutions in their communities.

Several projects led by the EFMD focus on how business schools respond to societal challenges. The EXIL project is particularly important, as it shows how universities and business schools contribute to initiatives that expand access to higher education. By proposing concrete ways to welcome and support refugee students, EXIL can inspire other institutions across the EFMD network.
                                                                                         
Christophe graduated from Paris-Dauphine University and holds a PhD in Management Sciences from HEC Paris, where he teaches in the institution's international programs. His field of research is on higher education management, global quality assurance systems and innovation in higher education Management.

Magdalena Kachnowicz is Director of the Department of Programmes for Students at Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). She specialises in international scholarship programmes and higher-education internationalisation. She has contributed to programmes supporting students from Ukraine and Belarus and has over a decade of experience in managing EU-funded initiatives.