Stop the outflow of candidates for interdisciplinary studies!
Daniel Kontowski, MA
University of Winchester
Executive Summary
After two decades of operation, interdisciplinary studies broke the trend of attracting a growing
pool of candidates, which jeopardize their position as elite study path within the university. Current
responses to the crisis focus on diminishing its scale, urgency or the agency of the institution.
A series of cost-effective actions proposed to counter this trend include creating a budget basis for
active marketing, analysis of collected data on previous candidates and enhancing the response rate
in the future, building online, TV and press presence, raising consciousness of interdisciplinary
studies among the candidates and targeting them with an attractive message.
Stop the outflow of candidates for interdisciplinary studies!
Daniel Kontowski – policy brief proposal
Where are the candidates?
Interdisciplinary studies at Polish universities attract less candidates than before.
At the general humanities and social sciences at the University of Warsaw (MISH UW), after a
period of growth, marked with more than 10 candidates per spot and topped with 800 in total
(2007), the number has fallen to just above 300. The trend within mathematical and natural sciences
(MISMaP UW), as well as at other Polish universities, was similar, although less visible due to
smaller total number of spots offered.
Why did it happen?
There are four reasons which jointly contributed to this situation:
1. The introduction of a Bologna system within Polish higher education (2005-2007), which
diminished the uniqueness of interdisciplinary studies.
Bologna allowed for more flexibility during the studies for every university student, and
over time nearly doubled the amount of required coursework within BA+MA studies in
the interdisciplinary mode.
2. Shifting priorities of candidates towards more professional study paths, especially since the
financial crisis.
This trend was strengthened by the policy recommendations of Ministry of Science and
Higher Education and media climate unwelcoming for the studies which do not provide
students with a clear job preparedness.
3. A growing international study opportunities for talented students from Poland.
After the accession to the EU, going abroad became a more plausible option, especially
for a growing share of candidates which hold the IB or EB.
4. Lack of adequate promotion of this mode of study due to extremely limited marketing
budget and lack of institutional will to actively seek new candidates.
Relying on the word of mouth, previous popularity within particular high schools,
printed brochures distributed only by students during the welcome day and attractiveness
of a new formula of study has ceased to be an effective strategy in the age of social
media, growing pool of study programs, professionalization of admission campaigns and
demographic and geographic diversification of university candidates pool. A growth in
total number of interdisciplinary studies offered further undermined the novelty effect
which also contributed to the popularity.
5. The steady increase in the number of places offered in the interdisciplinary studies, which
first downplayed the its elite character, and in the long run diluted the distinctive features
of the students’ population.
When after a few years more and more students become less and less different from the
regular programs, interdisciplinary studies, , lost some of its competitive advantage, and
therefore appeal in attracting less determined students, which contributed to the initial
growth in applications.
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Stop the outflow of candidates for interdisciplinary studies!
Daniel Kontowski – policy brief proposal
Why should we care?
Interdisciplinary studies have never been as popular as more established career paths, but they
attracted a growing number of candidates. With a bigger pool of candidates, the process of selection
ended in more diverse, academically able, engaged and determined class each year. Those students
who got in were more likely to work hard, support the institution and build a relation with their
tutors. Interdisciplinary studies were regarded an excellence initiative within a research university,
providing talented students to the classes in all faculties and perfect candidates for PhD.
Without these factors in place, interdisciplinary studies do not enjoy its previous status within the
institution, losing both the support from deans and the ability to provide students with a truly
distinctive study path.
What responses were already proposed?
The most popular response to the falling applications is a lack of any action. Smaller number of
candidates has been attributed to a dwindling population of candidates in general, or to changing
priorities of students, both treated as independent variables. Both of those explanations are actually
false.
Although a number of eligible new candidates nationwide has fallen by ca. 20% since 2005, this
cannot explain over 50% fall in applications. Moreover, there is a growing pool of returning
candidates (those with some track of academic study) with more focused preferences. An
average candidate is currently applying to more study programs than they use to, which reflects
both a change in strategies and relative affordability of registration fees.
As for the changing priorities of students, this may create an impression that former popularity
of interdisciplinary studies could have happened only due to high match between the career
goals of candidates and the features of interdisciplinary studies. But the latter has changed as
well, with expansion of majors offered, and the introduction of more professional fields (eg.
Law, which currently attracts more than 30% of all interdisciplinary studies). There is no
inherent reason why interdisciplinary studies cannot shape the preferences of the candidates by
more aggressive marketing.
Some more elaborate arguments against counteracting the falling applications were based on
insiders’ knowledge that the candidates do not necessarily share. This include the type of
selection criteria during the second phase of the admissions process, bureaucratization of the
interdisciplinary studies, shifting relations between students and their tutors or growing
requirements towards degrees. Although all of these are to some extent true, these are not a
common knowledge among the candidates, nor the topics that prospective students look for
during enrolment events and when contacting enrolment officers.
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Stop the outflow of candidates for interdisciplinary studies!
Daniel Kontowski – policy brief proposal
The second stream of though is that the significant drop in the number of candidates has happened
in the past, but does not continue, so there is no need for an urgent action.
However, students who wish to achieve a double degree should be increasingly looking for
interdisciplinary studies as the regular programs visibly bloated the curricula and at some point
the government introduced fees for second degree (later declared unconstitutional), which was
announced through all media outlets.
Moreover, growing chance of success in securing place in once highly valued interdisciplinary
studies should be a driver of students’ interest to get into the more selective path - which also
did not happen.
Finally, the relatively stable number of total candidates over the last three years obscures the
fact that the number of candidates who have completed all the formal requirements to be
considered (including the submission of the topics for the second phase of the selection process)
has been steadily declining. Currently only 60% of the total number of candidates do so.
What should be done?
In the preparation phase (Fall-Spring):
- Closing inefficient ways of reaching potential candidates (mailing to the selected high
schools).
- Analysing the data collected on the candidates in the previous years, to better understand
the specific dimensions of major outflows.
- Assignment a one-off marketing budget, which in the future would be linked to the revenues
from registration fees paid by the candidates (thus becoming a performance-based funding).
In the execution phase (Early Summer):
- Strong online presence of the interdisciplinary studies program, based on information that
is both complete and relevant for the candidates, should be secured from the early Autumn
onwards; this should include both a visually attractive website as the social media channels,
with responsive student-volunteer team. The FAQ and bi-monthly Q&A sessions should be
a vital part of those actions.
- High-reach media (including daily press and TV) should be approached with a proposition
of introducing interdisciplinary studies to the wider audience, also outside of the big
academic cities. The content promoted in the articles/programs should highlight the benefits
of interdisciplinary studies, differences with regular programs, flexibility, graduate
prospects and notable alumni.
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Stop the outflow of candidates for interdisciplinary studies!
Daniel Kontowski – policy brief proposal
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Creating a students-curated Youtube channel that would broadcast materials depicting „life
as a interdisciplinary student”, as well as interviews with the administration, tutors and
notable alumni.
A closer cooperation with the central administration should be established with the aim of
promoting interdisciplinary studies in university publications as well as featuring them in
the admissions form.
In the assessment phase (Late Summer):
- Designing an online survey on the reasons to choose interdisciplinary studies, information
channels and demographic and geographic data, made obligatory for all freshmen.
- Inviting all of the other candidates to complete it shortly after the enrolment, with two
follow up rounds through email and reminders on the social media. Small awards can be
drawn.
- Using the harvested data to better target future enrolment campaigns.
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