UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS: MUSEUMS AT UNIVERSITIES. GUARDIANS OF ACADEMIC HERITAGE, IN THE LIGHT OF LEGAL REGULATIONS AND PRAXIS

Abstract

Establishing and organising university museums at higher-education institutions demonstrates an increased interest in the history of the given institution, its bonds with the region, yet first and foremost it points to the need to preserve traces of academic heritage constituting an important component of national heritage. To-date, university museums in Poland have been dedicated neither an unequivocal definition, nor specific legal regulations. These organizations are characterized by differentiated management modes, formulation of goals, as well as varied policies of amassing collections. An attempt at defining university museums and their legal status, as well as their positioning in tertiary-education institutions’ structure has been made. Moreover, the nuances resulting from the failure to have included university museums in the Act on Museums of 21 November 1996 have been clarified. Additionally, a list of university museums for 2020, put together as a result of the research conducted by the paper’s Authors and based on the documents available in the archive of the Association of University Museums (SMU), has been presented.