ACA’s Polish member, Perspektywy Education Foundation, has recently marked the 20th anniversary of private higher education in Poland by working to draw wide attention to the sector’s accomplishments and challenges. First Perspektywy co-organised (with the Conference of Rectors of Higher Vocational Schools in Poland and Lazarski University) an international conference in late September, under the title “Private Higher Education and its Contribution to Enhancement of Innovation Potential of Europe in the Global Competitive Environment”. The event brought together rectors and professors from numerous Polish and European private institutions as well as experts on higher education from internationally renowned research centres.

Perspektywy’s concerns about the difficulties facing Polish private higher education extended to an editorial in University World News in October. The article highlighted the extent to which private institutions have facilitated Poland’s impressive massification efforts over the last two decades, but also drew attention to the “unfair treatment” faced by the sector. For example, full-time students in Polish private higher education do not have access to the same subsidies provided to their counterparts at public institutions, and research staff employed in the public sector face legal hurdles when it comes to holding multiple appointments (i.e. working simultaneously in public and private institutions). Perspektywy’s own report, Private Higher Education in Poland 2011, published in the summer, provides greater detail on all of these issues.

Perspektywy

Private Higher Education and its Contribution to Enhancement of Innovation Potential of Europe in the Global Competitive Environment (conference information)

University World News