INVESTIGATION: Former Rector of Polish Adventist University Arrested in Diploma Mill Scam
20 June 2025 |
On May 12, 2025, Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office and Central Anti-Corruption Bureau announced the arrest of five individuals charged with participation in an organized criminal enterprise, engaged in issuing falsified documents intended to get unearned diplomas, as well as accepting financial bribes ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 Polish złoty (abbreviated as “PLN”) and other personal benefits, in exchange for producing the documents.
The falsified documents included records certifying the completion of undergraduate and graduate studies, the defense of bachelor’s and master’s theses, and final exam board protocols, as well as postgraduate certificates, including MBA diplomas which qualify holders to serve on the supervisory boards of companies with state treasury participation.
A total of 30 charges were announced against the suspects.
Adventist offender
Among those detained was Bernard Koziróg—former rector of the Polish Adventist College of Theology and Humanities (2003–2011), Adventist pastor, and former editor and frequent contributor to Znaki Czasu (Polish Signs of the Times). He is also an academic lecturer, professor, and author of historical and theological books and articles.
The arrests mark a new phase in an investigation that began in 2022, following a Newsweek exposé that revealed widespread irregularities at Collegium Humanum (rebranded in 2024 as the University of Business and Applied Sciences ‘Varsovia’)—a private university dubbed a “diploma factory” due to accusations that it issued turbo-paced, high-priced degrees with little or no academic merit. Among the degree recipients were numerous former and current Polish ministers, members of Parliament, and other national and local politicians.
Minister of Agriculture
The latest chapter broke on Tuesday, June 11, when the news outlet Goniec.pl reported that Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture Michał Kołodziejczak was implicated in the scandal. His academic degree was allegedly obtained with the help of Bernard Koziróg.
At the beginning of 2024, Kołodziejczak was reportedly inquiring about how to obtain a degree. Word reached Koziróg, who held at that time —among other roles—the position of recruiter for Collegium Humanum. It has been alleged that Koziróg contacted Kołodziejczak with an offer to handle all necessary matters to quickly secure a degree and facilitate academic advancement.
For a fee of 4,000 PLN, Koziróg delivered Kołodziejczak’s documents to the registration office along with other applicants. There, he allegedly instructed a staff member to enter the details into the electronic management system and think up grades “off the top of their heads.” The expedited bachelor’s degree in management for Kołodziejczak was scheduled to be awarded in June of that same year. According to testimonies from former staff members, this process mirrored that of others of Koziróg’s “students.”
Included in the folder Koziróg submitted for Kołodziejczak was a fictitious transcript from the Legnica University of Management, showing six semesters of completed coursework. The transcript was dated June 20, 2017, and contained just enough credits to fulfill the requirements for a licencjat (bachelor’s) degree.
However, the signature on the transcript belonged to a man who had ceased to serve as rector three years earlier. Additionally, the university had lost its legal license to operate as an educational institution in 2016.
Transferred students
According to testimony from one of Collegium Humanum’s vice-rectors, Koziróg’s students shared one defining trait: they had supposedly transferred from other institutions with already completed exams and grades. None of them had studied on campus. Koziróg personally oversaw the defense of their theses.
Kołodziejczak was not enrolled at Collegium Humanum for long, because in February 2024 the rector was arrested, leading to administrative chaos, including multiple leadership changes, and the appointment of a government caretaker to oversee institutional operations.
This, however, did not deter Kołodziejczak. With Koziróg’s assistance he transferred to the University of Law and Administration in Wołomin, where he was expected to defend his thesis. Koziróg testified that for an additional installment of 4,000 PLN he submitted the required documents, wrote the diploma thesis, and was present during Kołodziejczak’s final exam. The next step in the plan was for Kołodziejczak to pursue a fast-tracked master’s degree at Pedagogium University of Social Sciences, where Koziróg just so happened to be rector at the time.
“Common practice”
In an interview with Polsat News following the Goniec article, Kołodziejczak vehemently denied any intent to break the law, claiming he was one of many victims of the organized scam. He insisted that it was common practice among members of Parliament to pursue individualized educational paths. He said that he had no reason to distrust a professor and rector bearing so many titles. and that any money paid was meant solely to cover administrative and legal fees.
Although Bernard Koziróg has not been employed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 2014, he has remained a public figure within Polish Adventism. He is regularly published in Znaki Czasu (the Polish Signs of the Times), streams weekly house group services on the YouTube channel “Adwentyści Grodzisk Mazowiecki” (which features the official Seventh-day Adventist Church logo), preaches at Adventist congregations when invited, records church-sponsored programs about excursions to biblical lands, and delivers lectures about his travels at church-organized events.
In 2024, he published and distributed a book titled The Chronicles of Polish Adventism: 1888–2024.
At the time of Koziróg’s arrest, the prosecutor imposed a bail of 200,000 PLN, a ban on contacting specified persons, a travel ban accompanied by the confiscation of his passport, and a prohibition on practicing as a teacher.
While Collegium Humanum is clearly at the center of the current scandal, it is not the first institution in Poland to engage in diploma trafficking. As Goniec reports, investigators are increasingly detaining lecturers and professors, as cases of diploma fraud from previous decades are only now coming to light.
Adventist officials fear that Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau might turn their attention to Bernard Koziróg’s tenure as rector of the Polish College of Theology and Humanities, to investigate whether similar irregularities occurred during that period.
As of now, the Polish Seventh-day Adventist Church has not issued a statement on the matter.
