The mayor of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk, has been detained and charged with getting a public company allegedly to pay a €50,000 bribe for the MBA degree he was awarded by private college Collegium Humanum.
Prosecutors have alleged widespread corruption at the Warsaw-based college, including the issuing of MBA degrees in exchange for bribes. MBAs are now often required by public officials to be able to hold lucrative positions on the boards of state companies.
Earlier in 2024 a former Conservative (PiS) MEP, Ryszard Czarnecki, and the head of Collegium Humanum, who cannot be named under Polish law, were detained during the same investigation into the selling of diplomas to public officials.
Public prosecutors authorised the Central Anti-corruption Bureau (CBA) to arrest Sutryk at his home on November 14 and have charged him with organising an illegal payment for the qualification from Collegium Humanum.
Sutryk, who is an ally of Poland’s current government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has insisted the qualification he obtained from the institution was issued legitimately, that he paid for the studies himself and completed his studies in line with course requirements.
During his re-election campaign in the spring of this year, when questioned about his MBA on public broadcaster Radio Wrocław, Sutryk said: “I signed up normally, I paid normally with my money, not public money. Then I passed the tests normally, which had to be passed according to the regulations. And I got this diploma.” He added that those who may have been cheated by the university were “victims” rather than wrongdoers.
Sutryk has so far refused to resign as mayor of Poland’s third-largest city over the indictment. The country’s ruling coalition had backed his re-election.
Sutryk sits on three such boards thanks to the qualification he obtained from Collegium Humanum. Many other graduates of the college who sit on public company boards may now have their qualifications challenged and could be forced to relinquish their posts if found guilty of wrongdoing.
Public prosecutors have also alleged that thousands of counterfeit diplomas were issued. More than 30 individuals have been charged so far in connection with the investigation, including the former Conservative (PiS) MEP Ryszard Czarnecki and his wife, who were detained in September and charged with peddling influence and money laundering.
Collegium Humanum, which was founded in 2018, has been shrouded in controversy since 2020 when media reports began to emerge that it was acting as a “degree factory”, providing MBAs to figures associated with the then-ruling PiS party, sometimes with the courses being publicly funded for individuals.
It later emerged that some people associated with the liberal Civic Coalition, an alliance headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, were also involved in receiving degrees from the college, among them Sutryk.
In the past 25 years, Poland has experienced rapid expansion of its higher education sector with many private colleges being established. The quality of the education offered by these facilities has sometimes been questioned but the Collegium Humanum is one of the first suspected of alleged corruption.
