A special course teaching Polish language and culture will be launched at the University of Warsaw (UW) in late August to help Belarusians adapt to living, studying and working in Poland.

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The course programme, sponsored by the Polish ombudsman, includes Polish language classes as well as Polish culture, history, arts and politics classes.

“The goal of our course is to make participants feel ready to function independently in Poland,” university official Radosław Kaleta said.

In 2020, the number of Belarusian nationals studying at the UW totalled 534, and constituted the second largest group of foreigners attending the University.

The number of Belarusians legally staying in Poland has exceeded 30,000 this year. Last June, Poland’s ombudsman appealed to Polish universities to organise Polish language courses for migrants from Belarus.

The course will start on August 30 and 51 people will be able to participate. Online applications can still be submitted up until August 10 at this address.

For almost a year, Belarus has been gripped by mass protests against the Alexander Lukashenko regime, with hundreds of his opponents detained and many exiled. The Belarusian dictator, who has ruled Belarus for 25 years, claims to have won the presidential election last summer, but his critics and the West say the vote was rigged.

The Polish minority in Belarus has also been targeted by the Belarusian regime, with several top activists arrested.