Strona wydawcy: https://www.wuj.pl

Starting from the master-student relationship as the primary one, giving the university an opportunity to ever exist, we conducted a survey among students and young researchers (60 people), asking them 8 questions regarding the perception of the role of the master in the university space, and the factors aff ecting calling someone the master. We wondered whether such factors as gender, age or academic degree had any signifi cance. Th e results of the survey were for us the starting point for answering the questions: who is the master in the contemporary university space, what is the role that he or she fulfi lls (or should fulfi ll) and how the master-student relationship forms (aff ects) the idea of the university. Th e next step was to confront the theoretical assumptions and the achieved results of the survey with a real life example of a person that can be a role model of an academic master - professor Stanley Dudrick, who was several times mentioned among the potential candidates for the Nobel Prize. Our commitment to fi nd answers to the questions presented in the introduction (the analysis of the survey, supported by the example of professor Dudrick, and some theore tical explorations) resulted in the designation of the following features of a real master: he or she has a clearly defi ned system of values, is a mature person, is a symbol of the highest aspirations of his or her student, and has “infectious” enthusiasm (gr. en-theos - inspiration derived from the gods). Th e survey results also indicated that longer and better relationships are formed if the student chooses the master by him- or herself.