The year 2008 saw a significant expansion of the academic offering at the university, which at that time operated as the Warsaw School of Finance and Management. A single-cycle Master’s degree programme in Law was launched, introducing one of the most demanding and prestigious fields of study in the higher education system. The launch of the law programme meant an expansion of the academic staff, a strengthening of the curriculum, and the university’s entry into the field of education preparing students for professions of public trust.
At the same time, the university joined the government’s ‘Pitagoras’ programme, which aimed to support students with disabilities in accessing higher education. The programme provided funding for measures to improve architectural, organisational and teaching accessibility, including, amongst other things, support from assistants, sign language interpreters and specialist technological tools.
Participation in the “Pythagoras” programme was an expression of the university’s early commitment to building an open and inclusive academic environment. At a time when accessibility issues were not yet widely regulated by the system, the university took steps aimed at genuinely levelling the playing field in education.
The year 2008 thus revealed two parallel directions of development: expanding the range of educational programmes and consciously establishing accessibility standards – elements which, in the years that followed, became an integral part of the university’s identity.