How can research on student life advance our understanding of broader historical processes? Our earlier work has connected research on university students to the histories of voluntary action, transnational co-operation and a changing international order. In our prior collaboration, we have focused on the aftermath of the First World War, noting that university youth featured prominently in visions of post-war reconstruction. In this context, we have highlighted new funding initiatives and shown how the integration of young veterans into universities offers fresh insights into the legacies of conflict.

In 2023–2024, a Brian Simon Grant from BERA enabled us to launch further work on the role of student life in reshaping European societies after 1918. The fact that our funding was named after Brian Simon is apt in more than one sense: his work as a historian of education is widely recognised and recent research on Simon’s life and career acknowledges his activist commitments. Indeed, during the 1930s, he was a key figure in the National Union of Students, founded in 1922 and itself a product of the post-war environment.

Our BERA-funded project is entitled ‘Rehearsals for democracy: Student life in Central and Eastern Europe, 1919–1923’. We initially focused on Poland and recruited a postdoctoral researcher, Agata Blaszczyk, who helped us survey the relevant literature. In some respects, the Polish situation was distinct: after the partitions of the late 18th century, Polish territories were under Austrian, Prussian and Russian rule, making the reconstruction of a Polish nation-state – and its educational system – a complex endeavour. At the same time, the Polish case exemplifies wider post-war developments. For example, it illustrates the highly contested nature of post-war borders, which in Poland were only settled following the Polish–Lithuanian, Polish–Ukrainian and Polish–Soviet wars as well as paramilitary violence in the Polish–German borderlands. Moreover, interwar Poland illustrates the political volatility of the new European states, including interethnic conflict, ideological polarisation and a slide into authoritarianism.

‘The Polish situation was distinct: after the partitions of the late 18th century, Polish territories were under Austrian, Prussian and Russian rule, making the reconstruction of a Polish nation-state – and its educational system – a complex endeavour.’

An exploration of Polish student life illuminates broader issues in three respects. The first is the memorialisation of recent military conflict. In Poland, public remembrance revolved around the post-war border wars. For example, in Lviv (known in Polish as Lwów), Polish students had been involved in the wars with Ukrainian and Russian forces. The local university and polytechnic subsequently commemorated their role as ‘defenders of Lwów’.

Second, student life raises wider questions about post-war democracy in Europe. In interwar Poland, student self-help organisations – the so-called Bratnie Pomoce or Bratniaki – had a broad field of action. They extended a tradition of mutual help, dating back to a period when Polish territory had been under foreign rule. Yet student activism also revealed major political tensions. While some supported state founder Józef Piłsudski, others were aligned with the ultra-nationalism of Roman Dmowski and his National Democracy movement, and by the 1930s the latter forces dominated Polish student politics.

The rise of such groups relates to a third aspect, namely the challenges to coexistence in diverse societies. Jewish students made up a significant proportion of the student body in disciplines such as dentistry, medicine and law but encountered widespread discrimination. During the interwar years, Jewish students faced growing antisemitic violence as well as campaigns to limit their presence through a numerus clausus – a defined cap on their overall number. Other national minorities also met with challenges, leading some members of the Ukrainian minority to study abroad. Other forms of discrimination revolved around gender relations. Although women constituted over a quarter of the Polish student population by the 1930s, they often experienced misogyny, including attempts to limit their presence on some courses.

Finally, the Polish case cannot be separated from the wider international story. Polish student leaders were strongly involved in the Confédération Internationale des Étudiants (CIE; International Confederation of Students) which brought together student leaders from different countries and had itself emerged from the post-war context. In 1924, Warsaw hosted the second CIE congress, with much official backing, and at this event, Jan Baliński-Jundziłł, a Polish student leader, was elected to the CIE presidency. The fact that several Polish CIE members were associated with the nationalist right highlights that international student co-operation was by no means a prerogative of the left.

As a whole, the BERA project allowed us to undertake preliminary work that will inform our future research. It illustrates how the history of higher education relates to wider questions of political participation and international co-operation, and we look forward to working with other researchers in the field.