Rusza 7. edycja Gościa na Gwiazdkę – włączysz się?

No one should be left alone for Christmas! We encourage the entire University of Lodz community to actively join the extraordinary campaign entitled Christmas Guest for the 7th time. Everyone, i.e. those studying, pursuing a doctorate or working at our university, can invite an international student to their homes for Christmas festivities.

a smiling woman with long hair wearing a jacket, brown scarf and red gloves, holding a red mug with white snowflakes, Christmas lights in the background

Why them? Some of our international students do not have a chance to meet their beloved ones during Christmas. Many of them will spend Christmas alone in their dormitories. There are more such people than you think! There are 1,200 people studying at the University of Lodz, who represent 76 different nationalities for who Poland is not a family home.

Fill in the application form and invite a Christmas Guest! 

It’s a great opportunity to:

  • show Polish customs and traditions to the international members of our academic community;
  • share Christmas joy with those in need (wafer, cheesecake, poppy seed cake or dumplings – they can break the ice);
  • make use of an extra place setting that each of us prepares for an unexpected guest.

How to invite a Christmas Guest?

It’s very simple: fill in the application form and we will try to find a Guest who meets your expectations.

  • If you are worried that you and your beloved ones will not be able to communicate with your Guest in a foreign language, please indicate that you would prefer to host a student who speaks Polish.
  • If you want to host a person from a specific country or ethnic group in your home – please indicate this in the form – we will do our best to make it happen.

Please remember that the idea of the Christmas Guest campaign assumes that you and your family decide on which day of Christmas you can invite your Guest (it does not have to be Christmas Eve) – we will only help you get in touch with each other.

We are waiting for your applications until 12 December! To complete the form, you must be logged in to the university network.

Do you have any questions or concerns? Call us at: 42 635 4236. You can also write to us: agnieszka.lukawska@uni.lodz.pl  or weronika.cmielewska@uni.lodz.pl 

See how much joy and happiness the previous editions have brought.

This is how it all started in 2016. The second edition, a year later, brought even more joy. The third one brought a real surprise, because some of the hosts became so intimate with their Guests that they invited them again during the subsequent editions.

The fourth edition broke all records – more than 60 families associated with the University of Lodz hosted 100 young people from several continents!

The 5th edition in 2020 was virtual due to the pandemic. Several hundred students took part in a meeting organised by the International Relations Office and the Promotion Centre of the University of Lodz.

In the 6th edition that took place in 2022, 70 students from all over the world were hosted in 40 Polish homes.

Open your home and invite a Christmas Guest!

There were 2,234 international students at the University of Lodz in 2022 (according to the Statistics Poland). This means a change on the podium and the University of Lodz again comes third among Polish public universities in terms of the number of international students.

Source: Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz