CHER 28th Annual Conference
Paper and Poster Proposal
Title: Two visions of the academic profession in Poland
Track: T3
Type of proposal: Research Paper
Authors: Dominik Antonowicz
Dominik Antonowicz, Institute of Sociology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Corresponding author’s email: Dominik.Antonowicz@uni.torun.pl
Purpose of this paper
The paper addresses the development of different trajectories of academic career in
changing higher education environment in Poland. Since 1989 the Polish higher
education undergone deep structural changes that had some, though limited impact of
path of academic career development. The model of academic career remained defined
as bureaucratic-corporatist because it is organized and regulated by the law on national
level. It contains of the structure of academic degrees and the professorship title and
procedures of awarding them. Notwithstanding it, all important decisions are entirely
left to Polish senior academics. For decades, this model has been part of the Polish
higher education and was deeply embedded in its institutional landscape. It symbolizes
the autonomy of academia and remains one of its last corporatist powers.
Only neoliberal reforms (2007) challenged seriously the exiting bureaucratic-corporatist
model of the academic career. It attempted to modernize employment relations limiting
its stability and measuring research performance and also re-organize career path
development by making it more open, more flexible and transparent to external
stakeholders. It was underpinned and strongly influenced by a dynamic process of
internationalization of the Polish higher education(Antonowicz, 2012). Not only it
opened a window opportunity for international cooperation but also introduced more
transparent criteria of measuring research performance, internationalize the peer-review
process and use bibliometric indicators with the reference of transnational benchmarks.
The reforms caused intensive and emotional debate about the future of Polish academic
profession. But – what is more important - it also reveals striking differences across the
Polish academia in adapting to the recent changes. Thus, the paper aims to illustrate
different responses, individual strategies and viewpoints on the academic career
development.
Design/methodology/approach:
This paper is largely based on empirical evidence conducted during EUROAC project,
(namely 60 in-depth individual interviews) but also it draws some secondary sources
(official documents, statements in public debates) collected during the analysis of
changes of the higher education in Poland (1989-2014).
The empirical findings will be checked against theoretical backdrop of world
polity,(Meyer et al., 1997) that views higher education as facing growing political,
economic and institutional pressures to evolve toward some kind of institutional
uniformity. Each national context is expected to adopt a similar institutional order and
policy model that covers the model of academic professional development. World polity
theories explain growing isomorphism in higher education however the Polish case
appears to be more complicated and requires supplementary explanation. The
dissemination of the global model of academic career encountered strong local
opposition with an alternative viewpoint on the academic profession and different path
of academic career development. This so called “exceptionalism” dominates in
humanities and to a large extent in social sciences and it stands out from the dominant
pattern And path dependency theory (Mahoney, 2001) it offers explanations for such
particular outcomes, often or in general for outcomes that have been predicted by
theory, but for various reasons did not occur.
Findings
The research demonstrates striking differences in viewpoints on the academic
profession and trajectories of professional development in higher education between
“hard” sciences and social sciences & humanities. While the representatives of “hard”
sciences tend to see their profession through projects and publications which have
influence their position, while representatives of social sciences and humanities tend to
focus on climbing the career ladder whereas research and projects play instrumental
role in achieving other means. The research shows that representatives of “hard”
sciences seem to be part of the world of science, being embedded in the transnational
community of scholars through transitional body of knowledge. It allows them to
conduct international projects, produce joint publications but also use transnational
benchmarks to measure research performance.
On the end, the local bureaucratic-corporatist model of career development is preserved
in the field of social sciences and humanities. Having limited links with transnational
research community through publications and research projects, social sciences and
humanities are located on the peripheries of the world of science on which global trends
exercise the least impact. Thus, normative reform agendas as being translated,
developed and implemented in its highly institutionalized environment which involves
well-rooted model of academic professional development. This divide was additionally
petrified by the expansion of Polish higher education (1989-2014) which concerned
mostly social sciences and humanities. It produced - as Marek Kwiek(2012) - deinstitutionalization of research mission of universities that have an impact on declining
research activity mostly in social sciences and humanities.
In result, in the Polish higher education there are two different trajectories of the
academic career, two types of individual strategies, points of references and also
contested views on the academic profession.
Antonowicz, D., 2012. External Influences and Local Responses. Changes in Polish
Higher Education 1990-2005, in: Maassen, P., Kwiek, M. (Eds.), National Higher
Education Reforms in a European Context: Comparative Reflections on Poland
and Norway. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 87–111.
Antonowicz, D., Brzeziński, J., 2013. Doświadczenia parametryzacji jednostek
naukowych z obszaru nauk humanistycznych i społecznych 2013 –z myślą
parametryzacji 2017.
Kwiek, M., 2012. Changing higher education policies: From the deinstitutionalization to
the reinstitutionalization of the research mission in Polish universities. Sci. Public
Policy 39, 641–654. doi:10.1093/scipol/scs042
Mahoney, J., 2001. Path-Dependent Explanations of Regime Change: Central America in
Comparative Perspective. Stud. Comp. Int. Dev. 36, 111–141.
doi:10.1007/BF02687587
Meyer, O.W., Boli, J., Thomas, G.M., Ramirez, F.O., 1997. World Society and the
Nation‐ State. Am. J. Sociol. 103, 144–181. doi:10.1086/231174
Teichler, U., Höhle, E.A., 2013. The work situation of the academic profession in Europe:
findings of a survey in twelve countries. Springer, New York.