POLAND: Empty university degrees

22 August 2010

There is a revolution brewing in Polish higher education as universities grapple with wrenching demographic changes as well as trying to figure out how to train students for advanced degrees while producing top-flight research - something they currently do very badly - writes Jan Cienski for Globalpost.

Barbara Kudrycka, the Minister of Higher Education, is shepherding a raft of legislation through parliament, while trying to focus on what universities and colleges will look like a decade from now.

Poland's universities have done one job very well. They have educated millions of people who were left out under communism, when the post-secondary system was reserved for a small elite. After the end of communism in 1989, many people already in the workforce suddenly needed degrees and skills in order to allow them to survive in a market economy.
Full report on the Globalpost site

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