HONORARY PATRONAGE

Ministry of Science and Higher EducationRepublic of Poland

European Forum for Higher EducationWrocław | 2 - 5 April 2014

FORUM PUBLICATION

Set of the few articles about Higher Education and its recent dilemmas

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Wroclaw, 2nd of April 2014

Dear EFHE Guests and Participants,

One year ago we decided to organize the European Forum for Higher Education.

There were few reasons why we decided to do it. As a students society we were interested

in creating useful and practical project which would be a good beginning for public

discussion about Higher Education in Europe. As every system, also Higher Education needs

regular development. Inviting guests and participants from different branches was aimed

to create a Forum which will consider all points of view.

We take the remarkable opportunity to give to your hands this set of articles.

We would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the commitment of all the participants.

Without good working co-operation it would be difficult to do it.

Below you can find the articles drafted by Forum Speakers as well as by non Forum

Speakers. They present different thesis, and share with us their experience and thoughts.

All of them will be at Forum, therefore you will have a chance to met them and ask

any questions.

The very huge interest about the Forum told us that Higher Education became a very

important topic during last years. It is possible to take few conclusions from it. We want

to give you the chance to take them during the Forum.

We wish you a satisfying and interesting lecture as well as wonderful time in the city

of Wroclaw. We look forward to seeing you at the Forum and hope that you will actively

participate in this special event.

Organizing Committee

ELSA Wroclaw

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Table of contents

Welcoming letter ................................................................................................................. 1 All quiet on the Eastern Front. A story about hopes, changes and evidence that educational models – unlike stereotypes – do not travel well Mateusz Mazzini ................................................................................................................... 3 Are law students being taught what we want them to know? Karolina Kanclerz .................................................................................................................. 9 A well-educated graduate. The challenge of the 21st century. Jędrzej Jachira ................................................................................................................................... 11 Higher education in post-soviet countries towards Western Europe Tomasz Gadomski ............................................................................................................................. 15 Does a graduate programme or internship help and prepare you for the world of work?

Martin Röver-Parkes .............................................................................................................. 20 Unemployment among graduates. The perspective of a young lawyer who managed. Dawid Mielcarski ............................................................................................................................... 23 Out of the frying pan, into the fire? About my removal to Switzerland. Jan Łowiński ...................................................................................................................................... 26 Student in the center of attention Katarzyna Piętkiewicz ....................................................................................................................... 29

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Mateusz Mazzini

MSc Candidate St Antony’s College, Oxford University

All quiet on the Eastern Front. A story about hopes, chances and evidence that

educational models – unlike stereotypes – do not travel well

Abstract The recent international studies of secondary and higher education provide empirical and ranking-

based evidence in support of Poland’s rapid educational development. Paired with relatively positive

economic performance and growing political importance as a key regional player, it reinforces

the tendency to portray Poland as an emerging potency, owing its positive prospects to strong, active

and well educated youth. Considering the country’s young democratic experience, legacies of

communist etatism and the post-transitional realm, the international community tends to portray

Poland as a flagship example of long-term successful transition. However, such assumptions widely

ignore the parallel development of indifference to democracy and imminent evaporation of social

capital, particularly apparent among post-transitional generations. This paper attempts to tackle this

omission, arguing that there exists a causal inference between the implementation of shock-alike neo-

liberal economic reforms in the immediate aftermath of transition and the growing indifference

to political participation a quarter a century later. Building on a Foucauldian argument of analyzing

dominant discourses through the optics of power relationships between post-transitional actors, this

paper argues that a certain model of social unit’s development promoted alongside the neo-liberal

reforms in education caused significant harm to young people’s attitudes towards public participation.

Key words: Poland, education, post-transitional reforms, social capital, youth unemployment.

In December 2013 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

(hereafter OECD) published the most recent edition of its biannual PISA Report –

a comparative study of educational performance conducted on pupils age 15-16 in over

70 countries from all around the globe.

The results were more than astonishing for Poland – a post-communist country always

labelled as an educational sleeping giant, where demographic potential has been failing

to capitalize itself into an efficient higher education model benefiting the labor market and

country’s development. This year, young Poles came sixth in Europe, overscoring their age-

mates from erstwhile educational potencies such as Great Britain, Sweden and many others.

These results were everything but expected, given that in previous editions Poland has never

managed to climb into Europe’s top ten in any of the test’s three critical segments (reading

comprehension, basic mathematical skills and science tasks).

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It comes with no surprise that such a stellar performance of Polish teenagers quickly

became politically usurped as evidence of the fact that ‘Poland has been going the right

direction’. In fact, on the day the results were published, Donald Tusk, Poland’s longest-

serving democratic Prime Minister issued a press statement in which he described Polish

youth as the best-prepared and most skillful in Europe. Tusk did not hesitate to use this

unexpected success and played it as a card of public image improvement. Luckily for him and

his government, which has been dropping dramatically in public support polls, international

experts from all over the world seized the optimism, ushering in wave of forward-looking,

positive articles on Poland. Predictions stuffed with prospects of bright future for

the erstwhile forerunner of bottom-up democratization for the first time, in fact, dedicated

significant time and space to education. Alicia Wittmeyer went as far as calling Poland

‘a new kid on the bloc for educational superpowers’ in her essay published with Sydney

Herald Tribune (SHT 7/12/2013). The Telegraph puts the young Poles in comparative

perspective to their age-mates from Britain, depicting them as ‘shining’ – a voice of particular

value given the virulent debate on Polish immigration to the United Kingdom. By the same

token, commentators began to link educational improvements with optimistic economic

expectations. Mitchell Orenstein from Foreign Affairs (The Shape of Things to Come –

Foreign Affairs 1/2014) includes Poland among his ‘6 countries on which to bet now’,

attributing the optimistic predictions of future economic development to – among other

factors - having ‘Europe’s second highest college enrollment rate’. In sum, as domestic

politicians say and foreign experts echo, young Poles cannot go wrong.

Be that as it may, there is more to a young person’s curriculum than just good schooling

and promising future on the job market. 25 years after the country became a universal symbol

of popular, grassroots mobilization which successfully put the communist single party regime

to an end, Poland has one of the Europe’s lowest scores in young people’s public

participation, with total electoral turnout rarely exceeding 50% (turnouts for citizens aged 18-

30 is even lower). Whether it concerns casting ballots on the election days, having a partisan

affiliation or taking part in public protests and civil disobedience, young Poles tend

to prioritize their own, individualistic self-development over public space activities. In other

words, social capital faces imminent evaporation.

As already presented, this paper argues the existence of a causal inference between post-

transitional educational reforms and growing indifference to democracy and public

participation. In order to prove it, it is indispensable to analyze the predominating discourse

concerning the role of education in the immediate post-transitional reformist framework,

stressing the importance of power relations in it.

In 1990, less than few months after the formal change of regime, Poland’s new vice-

prime minister, the economist Leszek Balcerowicz presented and subsequently vigorously

ushered in a plan of economic restructuration and introduction of market economy, popularly

known as ‘Balcerowicz’s Plan’. In designing it, he was heavily influenced by then a young

doctor from Harvard Business School and a firm advocate of neo-liberalism, Jeffrey Sachs.

They both prioritized harnessing the hyperinflation and setting up a fully capitalist economy

at any costs. The plan proved successful, however the rapid, shock therapy (the reforms were

announced to be completed after only 111 days) triumphed at the expense of many other

dimensions requiring reforms, including educational policies. As Tomiak (2000) recalls in his

piece on dilemmas of Polish education after transition to democracy, education has hardly

ever been prioritized in the post-transitional reformist framework. Since the dominant

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discourse was neo-liberal, dictated by economists often educated outside the country,

it emphasized the urgency of improving the immediate economic performance in order

to attract foreign direct investment and increase the credibility in the eyes of global financial

institutions, conditioning the loans on the continuity of reforms. This discourse was so

powerful that it acquired support even among people like Jacek Kuroń, a champion of social

policy, widespread public education and welfare state. Efforts were made to avoid costly

reforms and certainly in a country which even today has a nearly 100% state-supported or

fully sponsored tertiary education (OECD 2004), such a reform would be everything but

untroubled.

Consequent to this discourse, the state-run educational units largely remained untouched

since the époque of communist single party state. Instead, the advocates of shock therapy

opened the educational market to private institutions. Surprisingly, this aspect of economic

reforms was one of the very few that passed uncontested. As much as there was no

parliamentary consensus among politicians for schooling reforms, there was a broad

consensus on non-state education. In this, two forms of schooling prevailed: the so-called

szkoły społeczne (social initiative-sponsored education) and private schools with tuition fees.

Specifically the latter option encountered supra-party support in the parliament. Private

schooling seemed to appeal to everyone, regardless of their political background, mostly –

again – because of the post-transitional neo-liberal discourse which equaled private with

western and western with better. Market, pluralism and autonomy of educational institutions

have in turn created a new social context for the functioning of education. The domestic

consensus on was further reinforced by international experts. In accordance with the neo-

liberal discourse in economy, OECD published a report on the state of Polish education,

in which it preached the assumptions of Sachs’s approach:

[The report’s author] concentrated his attention upon the attempt to generate

the spirit of entrepreneurship in Polish society, arguing that ‘the stimulating

of entrepreneurship is an indispensable condition for shifting a society’s system of values

towards individualistic competitive values

OECD, 1992, p. 15

By means of this quotation it becomes apparent that the opening of the educational

market to private investment promoted a certain particular model of social unit. The state-

supported education largely preserved its status quo ante from the pre-democratic regime and

its institutional and program reform resulted in being too compound for first governments

to tackle. Thus it was the private schooling that became the flywheel of the post-transitional

development.

Given that most of private educational entities established tuitions fees, they quickly

became to be governed by clear free-market principle and profit-driven rules. Moreover,

especially the secondary and tertiary education institutions focused on training in subjects like

management, finance and marketing, since a post-communist, post-state commanded

economy was suffering from a terrible deficiency of such experts. As a result,

the aforementioned discourse of neo-liberal rationing prevailed in both form and function

of post-transitional schooling. The form was seen in the methods of governing private schools

– they considerably lowered entry standards in order to attract more students. The neo-liberal

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function was the content of the curriculum – the private schooling promoted attitudes

strengthening free market economy – the central aim of post-transitional reformers. Both

these phenomena resulted in a concatenation of changes that eventually harmed the social

capital.

The dominant paradigm of private management and finance schools was based

on principles of neo-liberalism. Accordingly, it emphasized the individualistic, profit-driven,

materialistic attitudes that dictated supremacy of self-development over collective public

actions. Since this logic established fertile foundations for a market economy, the first

democratic governments applauded this direction of reforms, giving more and more

concessions for new private schooling institutions. Nevertheless, the euphoria of initial strong

results was quickly replaced by early impediments in economic development. The economy

was growing slower than assumed and the foreign aid was not fully replaced by foreign direct

investment. The demand therefore was not paired with the supply. Together with a number

of externalities (such as a financial crisis in Russia in 1998), the inability of the economy

to absorb a massive wave of highly skilled young employees resulted in an employment crisis.

According to the numbers presented by Francesco Pastore, within the first decade of transition

the percentage of young people age 20-31 still in education rose from 13% in 1990 to 31

in 1999, but it was followed by a huge increase in unemployment in this age group (26.6% to

46.8%). Ironically, the international institutions were quicker in spotting this harrowing

tendency than Polish governments. Already in 1995 the OECD

[…] recommended reduction in the number of institutions in higher education

through integration, suggested combining pedagogical academies with other institutions

of higher learning located in the same town, advocated autonomy and pluralism in

the whole system of higher education, proposed the elimination of central minimum

program requirements.

OECD 1995c: 27

Following this report, the European Commission suggested, that with very few

exceptions, most of the private higher education units should not be given the license to grant

various type of licencjat (BA/BSc/BSc Econ) in order to provide students with fuller, 5-years

long training. Allowing them to grant licencjat would damage the market by raising students’

expectations towards employment and wages that would not be followed by high quality

training. However, the contrary happened. The post-transitional governments, independent

of their political affiliation, were too adamant on maintaining the strong, income-oriented

discourse to introduce substantial changes to the educational system. In addition, the reforms

turned out to face strong impediments in the structural dimension as well.

As the OECD analysts from Canada and Sweden observed, the societal high status

traditionally given to academics, their political involvement in the opposition, paired with

most of the professorships being allocated for life created tensions between possible reforms

and the academic environment. The Examiners’ Report stated that given Polish higher

education’s recent history a large number of votes secured for professors (in the elected

bodies of the different establishments) can be expected to have an anti-reform and anti-

innovation bias. In sum, the rapid transfer of new, western-centered educational model

to post-transitional realm quickly exhausted its initial powers. Subsequent governments only

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paid lip service to the educational reform, postponing it in time. Nevertheless, the longer

the wait, the more costly this reform was becoming.

As Pastore argues, high youth unemployment is often followed by high long-term youth

unemployment. Therefore to avoid failure on the job marked, students tend to stay

in education as long as possible. Such modality is known in the literature as Parking Theory –

students tend to ‘park themselves’ in education, waiting for better conditions on the labor

market.

One of the possible explanations was the high expectations that post-transitional youth

held towards higher education.

According to the recent OECD studies, candidates with higher education are by default

more likely to participate in the labor market. But participation again does not mean fulfilling

one’s expectations – after the initial post-transitional boom the economy could not provide

recent graduates with salaries as high as the first classes of democratic education. Growing

dissatisfaction with employment prospects and labor market conditions gave room to another

phenomenon detrimental for social capital – a mass youth emigration. With the unification

of European higher education system under the Bologna Process, the European Union

orchestrated national governments to create more internationally applicable education (IAE) –

a term used to describe university degrees providing training universal enough to allow

a student undertake employment in any of the member states. The IAE encountered

a particularly fertile ground in Poland, were high unemployment coupled with high levels

of university education fostered educational emigration among youth. It also reinforced

the neo-liberal discourse, now within the societal dimension. Since the IAE – often offered

by private units – was providing training applicable to any European country, students were

more likely to purchase such an education if they know they are likely to find employment

with expected higher earnings abroad. In fact, now Poland has one of the highest scores

in the number of Erasmus exchange participants and a growing population of students

enrolling for full-time degrees, especially in Great Britain, Denmark, Germany and

the Netherlands. With the large outflow of young, skilled citizens – potential leaders of newly

emerging civil society – Poland lost a large part of its internationally mobile capital which

could improve the state-society relations and strengthen the third sector. According to

the principal theories of social capital and civil society, it is precisely the post-transitional

generation of well-educated individuals that is expected to take over the civic leadership

without being doomed to political co-optation. Through the above presented concatenation

of different phenomena that resulted from the dominance of neo-liberal power discourse

in the aftermath of transition, Poland’s social capital was profoundly undermined.

Now, 25 years after the transition, tackling this problem on the governmental level finally

appears to be unavoidable. After the 1999 general reform of secondary education every

government has taken interest in educational policies, however with mixed results and often

contradictory strategies.

As a result, there is a strong cacophony of different educational policy proposals among

experts and politicians. Some argue that a shift from IAE to more country-specific educational

model would impede further emigration and fight youth unemployment. Others, following

on the evergreen neo-liberal discourse advocate a wide range of policies, including tuition

fees in public universities, income-contingent loans, a compulsory graduate tax independent

of domicile or even taxation of citizens earning abroad. Whatever the policy, action needs

to be taken. Unlike the Prime Minister’s optimistic declaration, Polish education needs

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a change and it’s a secondary question whether it needs a reform or a revolution.

The promising results of secondary school pupils do not translate into strong higher

education. Moreover, the public schooling lost its societal mission – it does not promote

proactive public attitudes and civic engagement. The function of socialization and

acculturation has been undermined by function of income-oriented, individualistic,

entrepreneurial attitudes. Education, however, does not exist in a vacuum. Contrarily,

it conditions a stable development of many other state dimensions. Therefore it needs to be

prioritized in governmental agenda, especially these days, when – quoting Amartya Sen and

HG Wells - human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

It is high time to understand that success in the former can prevent the latter.

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Karolina Kanclerz

Legal counsel at the one of the biggest law firms in Poland

Are law students being taught what we want them to know?

Young, ambitious and with lot of energy and passion – these are the graduates of today,

but are they practice-ready? Do they meet the expectations of law firms interested

in employing them? Unfortunately not. As practitioners, when looking for new promising

graduates to join our team, we expect them to have a reliable grounding in areas of law and

a strong academic background in the principal areas of law such as civil or commercial law.

Nevertheless, test scores and grades are not enough. Of equal importance to good academic

performance are analytical, logical thinking skills and creativity. Instead of the ability

to repeat hundreds of provisions of marginal laws not commonly used in our everyday work,

we are more interested in the way graduates can apply school-based knowledge and abstract

legal theories to the legal issue presented to them, as well as whether they are able to “think

outside the box”.

As advising is the key task of an attorney’s job, oral and written communication skills

are fundamental tools in our work. Arguing clients’ cases before court or conducting

negotiations, entails the proficient ability to formulate legal argumentation. Consequently,

we are interested whether our potential employees can convey information in a concise and

persuasive way and are able to provide logical reasoning to a presented opinion.

Communication skills are also crucial as regards building relationships with clients. This is

closely connected to the changing role of what it means to be an attorney; from the typical

adviser, the role of an attorney has been shifted to being more of a business partner to

the clients. Doing good legal work is now simply not enough, as clients approach a law firm

with a company’s various problems and discuss with us any and all key managerial decisions,

not just those of a legal nature. The success of a law firm hinges largely on an attorney’s

ability to inspire confidence and build a relationship with clients based on trust. Therefore,

we are trying to detect good communication skills in potential candidates for positions within

our law firm.

The other skill we value highly is a good command of a foreign language. Working

in a big law firm, where transnational disputes and liaisons with foreign clients are our day-to-

day work, the knowledge of a foreign language is an absolute “must”. Advising global-market

companies, we quite often use foreign languages more frequently than Polish.

Other personality attributes like good time management, team work, researching skills

or enthusiasm in accepting new challenges, to name a few, are also helpful for the perspective

lawyer to find the ideal job. We see, as well, the change it makes to the fledging lawyers’

attitude to job and career, which affects their interpersonal skills. Young people have very

interesting hobbies and passions which they do not want to sacrifice for a career. They want

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to keep the balance they’ve established between work and private life, which has formed

the candidate standing before us.

Welcoming several dozen interns each year, it is clearly noticeable that students find

the education system as one which does not address the needs of a law firm searching for new

candidates. Students realize that they are not being provided with the skills and abilities that

would allow them to be properly prepared for entering the workplace after graduation. Where

students suffer most is the lack of practical knowledge as well as forsaking improvement

on their communication skills. Giving up oral exams in favour of written tests does not make

this any better. Students usually do not know how to write a basic statement of claim or other

pleadings (legal letter), although they can recite all the relevant provisions of the law setting

forth legal formalities that should be met by such a writ. As there is a big difference between

studying and practicing law, more and more students are taking summer internships in law

firms to gain first-hand knowledge of what an attorney’s daily work looks like and to get

an insight into the realities of a job in the field of law. Applying for an internship and seeking

as many learning opportunities as possible by handling different types of legal matters allows

them get some experience and make their stock rise in the eyes of future employers.

But, should it be the only way to get any practical skills involved in practicing law?

What we may hope for, is that students’ objections and remarks will be addressed

by the law schools and some changes to the legal education system in Poland will be

implemented.

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Jędrzej Jachira

Student of Law at Wrocław University EFHE Director

A well-educated graduate.

The challenge of the 21st century

During the last few years public debates, conferences and discussions about higher education

have never been more popular. They concern the common problems which higher education

systems suffer. It is always connected with the internal situation of the country. Different

voices and various opinions are all connected by the need of immediate changes in this sector.

Excessive expectations of employers, unemployment among postgraduates or theoretical

rather than practical preparation of graduates for future jobs are the only few revealed

problems at the top of the huge pyramid of gripes.

Many years ago in Poland, the diploma was seen to be a guarantee of both a high

social status and success at finding a job. Today, the sole diploma does not guarantee anything

and its role is limited. There is popular opinion, especially among young people, that if you

want to find a well paid job, it is better to do something which does not need a diploma or

educational background. We live in the century, when is possible to study at plenty of private

universities which "manufacture" their graduates. They draft the same diplomas as other well

known and prestigious universities. The magister of law or medicine who was studying in part

time system, attending the classes twice per month and paying a lot for this privilege, has

the same title as his colleague, who was studying day and night for free to accomplish

the course. Perhaps they will have a different knowledge and skills. Perhaps the labor market

will take a stock of this?. But will the patient know which doctor paid for its competences and

which one was well talented to finish the course? Some of the professions are limited by

its nature and reserved for minorities. By manufacturing so many graduates we do agree

to create new and young unemployed groups. What shall we do to become so few in the group

of so many?

Internships.

The President of Hewlett Packard Wroclaw (HP) Mrs. Agnieszka Orlowska said:

“When I have to make a choice between the postgraduate who graduated three faculties and

postgraduate who finished one faculty but made even one internship, I will always hire

the latter one”. According to last NACE 2013 academic survey at randomly chosen

universities, 63% of graduates who took a paid internship received a job offers as opposed

to only 37% who did not take any internships. The problem is that majority of Polish

universities impose too many classes per week. It at least does not encourage undergraduates

to take the internship as the price is one of missing out on the classes amongst other problems.

The second thing is the lack of a concrete co-operation between universities and

employers with reciprocal benefits. Several recruitment lectures made by big employers

at our universities attract young students usually to spend long hours at “back up offices”.

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It is often so called fishing. The universities shall allow employers to do recruitment,

but the academic staff shall have the benefits as well.

Contact with these employers to know about the effects of the traineeship would be

a minimum. They shall have the chance to implement some practical solutions in the classes

and thereby modify the content, very often theoretical. Other side of this coin is that talented

graduates are not encouraged to stay at the University for postgraduate studies. In any other

job they will earn more, they will not have to stay on Saturdays or Sundays at a job, and

finally they will not have to connect it with other jobs positions to cover the rental costs.

A useful experience would be possible to gain at an internship, but because of the time

limitations it is better to take 2-3 internships during the studies in different firms. It is also

worth to start from the simple basic things. Without this knowledge it would be difficult

to work at a higher level in the future because we will not deeply understand the beginning.

The other problem is high expectations of undergraduates. The fact that we are studying does

not entitle us to demand a salary, own office and secretary. Contrariwise, we shall take

the traineeships as different way of studying and investment in the future. But that is possible

only with the mutual willingness of co-operation.

International academic programs.

More than 20 years ago, at least in Poland, it was unimaginable to study at two

or sometimes even three different universities during only five years of studying. Tough,

today we can watch the corrida in Madrit studying its history at local university, few months

later follow the history of French Gothic architecture siting in Notre-Dam after classes

at Sorbonne University and come back to Poland to defend MA thesis from both topics.

Thanks to such programs as for example LLP Erasmus it became possible. However there is

also a danger not always well identified by the students. Entire departure for various

universities in the world, where de facto students spend more time on the long "integration"

rather than visiting Notre-Dame cathedrals and studying, would startle very much

"the crowning glory of the Christian humanists" , Mr. Desiderius Erasmus. Hence,

the students shall be aware of disadvantages as well as advantages which exist. Gaining soft

skills during such programs, improving foreign language skills and getting many new contacts

may become invaluable. Nevertheless, without a sound academic background it will be

difficult to take advantage of these. Except it, it is worth to participate in the programs which

are strictly connected with our studies and which give us certain competences. The great

example are the postgraduate studies e.g. LLM. This kind of program enables undergraduates

or postgraduates to develop a deeper knowledge from the branches in which are they

interested. They can focus on it and don’t have to devote their attention to other subjects.

Finally they obtain the chance to get a diploma.

“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.”

Even before opening the borders for foreign cultures, studying foreign languages was

always a road map of a culture. It is very well shown in the quotation above made some sixty

years ago by the renowned Cambridge professor of philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Nowadays it is obvious that studying foreign languages opens the locks of many doors. In this

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moment there are more than 7 thousands languages in the world. What are the foreign

languages which open the doors to the labor market? What are the keys?

According to last Eurostat research(8.10.2013) 2/3 of the population in the age 25-64

know at least one foreign language. Most often it was the English language (81%

of explored).

Thus, except the standard which I consider today studying English, the graduate who

wants to become attractive on the labor market must distinguish itself from majority. From

the huge scope of the possibilities however, the choice must be well thought out. Except from

the other European languages which come to our countries with big employers e.g. Finnish,

Spanish or Italian and beyond the not European languages which come from the trade

relations with other countries, e.g. Chinese, Russian. I find it to be very useful to study

the foreign languages of our neighbors. The internal situation in these countries and not

a play maker role on the international market of our neighbors shall not cross out studying

its language. The changes are written in the history. The borders which are closed now may

be opened in the near future. Did anyone 30 years ago find Poland, Czech Republic

or Romania to be the states which will get into equal economical relations with the states

pillars of the UE? Opened borders encouraged emigration, and there will always be the firms

which will want to try to open its business in new, risk but also demandable fields. Thus, to be

one step ahead of our competitors it is good to have vision.

It is worth to consider the possible situation after a few years and reflect weather some

of the countries will develop or open for Europe and will need specialists from our country.

Close location is vital because of the very often similar culture, not far location and common

border. For the good example of countries which will become attractive and which will have

a strong need of economical changes I find post soviet countries as Belarus, Bulgaria or

Ukraine to be on a good, albeit painful track towards democracy.

English81%

Russian11%

German4%

Czech4%

Foreign language most often declared as the best known within UE

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International working experience.

Following the biographies of the people who achieved successes on their career track

I found at least one, common link. The majority of them were obtaining a hard work

experience before they got a first job connected with their interests. Furthermore, they were

not usually forced by life to do it, but rather willing to learn a certain skills.

The board member of the one of the biggest banks in Poland told during interview,

how much he learned from the few simple jobs which he took abroad. Irrespective of

the socioeconomic status of his parents, he knew that only on such simple but demandable

experience would he be able to gain soft skills. It was also the best opportunity to learn a first

foreign language in practice. After many years he saw how it was important in the future

managing of the company or in contact with other employees. Unfortunately, the universities

do not give the students too many chances to learn these capabilities. Because of the huge

amount of students the universities walk out on the oral exams. Although at some

mathematical faculties the written exams shall remain the same, at many other faculties

it shall be different. The problem is not even that the exams are written, but the fact that we

are checked by the machines. We lost our names for numbers and letters. X1, X2 or X10 are

the actual students. Will anybody remember us when our children will come to our

universities? The problem which arises from that is also the lack of the selection and proper

control on the studies. The computer will always adjudicate us the same. The machine does

not see any other circumstances. Talent, motivation, or commitment do not exist for

themselves. This lack of the selection will also unstuck those who thought that will manage,

because they managed at studies. We will fill the unemployment rate or take them to other

professions. Therefore I find a direct contact with the academic tutors as a very needed

privilege. I would like to imagine the interesting conversations between professors and

students which end up in the pubs and which give a fruitful result. It is difficult but it is not

impossible.

The balance.

Last but not least I would like to add two points. The balance and motivation. The very

well educated graduate today is not usually the one who easily walked through his studies,

and defend his diploma better or worse. The very well educated graduate is this, who took

advantage of the all opportunities around, not forgetting about the balance between taken

activities. This is not possible without a good plan and motivation which is the start of

the very useful expedition. In spite of many problems of the higher education system which

are discussed here, and not very good status quo, it will be difficult to achieve the success

without a good emotional attitude, patience, believes and vision which is not a goal.

15

Tomasz Gadomski

Student of Law at Wrocław University Legal assistant at local set of chambers

Higher education in post-soviet countries towards Western Europe

Higher education (HE) is one of essential factors in economy, social and political life, general

well-being of nations and technological progress. Europe is traditionally recognized as region

where higher education systems are on a very advanced level. We have to realize though is

that not all European countries are equally developed. It has been almost 25 years now since

the fall of the Berlin wall and liberation of Eastern European countries, but post-soviet

societies still struggle to catch up to Western Europe’s civilization level. I have decided

to check how those nations are doing in HE field when compared with some Western

European educational potentates.

There are many elements that have impact on HE system’s evaluation, making it quite

a complicated endeavor to make it reliable. Fortunately, recently (in 2012) organization

Universitas 21 sponsored creation of U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems.

Project is based at the Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research University

of Melbourne and currently uses 22 attributes grouped under four headings: Resources,

Environment, Connectivity and Output to score 50 chosen countries and compare their HE

systems. All data from U21 Ranking I will use come from 2013 report.

Countries I have chosen to represent Western Europe are: Germany, United Kingdom

and Sweden, all of these countries are renowned for their excellent universities and overall

technological progress. Post-soviet representatives shall be: Poland, Czech Republic (both

members of EU and OECD) and the biggest ex-communist country in Europe (except Russia)

– Ukraine.

Table 1. General info.

1.Country 2.HDI1 3.Population 4.GDP/capita2

5.U 21 Ranking total score

6.U 21 Ranking position

SWEDEN 0.916 9 651 531.00 55.072 85.20 2

GERMANY 0.920 80 619 000.00 41.376 68.20 15

UK 0.875 63 705 000.00 39.367 74.90 10

POLAND 0.821 38 502 396.00 12.82 51.90 30

CZECH 0.873 10 513 800.00 18.428 56.70 25

UKRAINE 0.740 45 426 200.00 3.872 49.00 35

WEST3 76.10

16

EAST4 52.53

1 As included in a United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report released on 14 March 2013. 2 UN data for 2012. 3 Averages for Sweden, Germany and UK. 4 Averages for Poland, Czech and Ukraine.

As table 1 demonstrates there is significant disparity between western and post-soviet

countries in the score, differences between averages is substantial 23.57 points. Data also

indicates that there is general trend of smaller (less populous) countries to have higher scores

as do countries with higher GDP per capita with an exception for United Kingdom whilst high

HDI doesn’t imply high U21 score. Based on that, we confirm that post-soviet countries

in this comparison fall behind in HE standards.

Table 2. Effectiveness and funding.

1.Country 2.Resource1 3. Output2 4.Output / Resource

5. government expenditure on h. ed. %GDP3

6. total expenditure on h. ed. %GDP4

7. government expenditure on h. ed. %GDP / total

SWEDEN 96.30 57.2 0.5940 69.60 69.20 1.0058

GERMANY 65.10 52.8 0.8111 47.80 50.00 0.9560

UK 57.10 63.2 1.1068 26.10 50.00 0.5220

POLAND 49.00 30.7 0.6265 47.80 57.70 0.8284

CZECH 46.20 32.8 0.7100 43.50 50.00 0.8700

UKRAINE 51.70 25.3 0.4894 78.30 73.10 1.0711

WEST 72.83 57.73 0.84 47.83 56.40 0.83

EAST 48.97 29.60 0.61 56.53 60.27 0.92

1 U21 Resource score. 2 U21 Output score. 3 U21 score of government expenditure on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP. 4 U21 score of total expenditure on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP.

Table 2 illustrates further meditation on the subjects. We can say Eastern European

nations’ HE systems are generally on the lower level of advancement then Western European

nations’ but important question of effectiveness rises.

Sure Western systems are better but we can assume based on GDP per capita levels

from table 1 that they receive much more resources. This assumption is confirmed by

the second column of table 2. We can see that average resource score of Western nations is

almost 1.5 times Eastern nations’ score.

Effectiveness of funding I decided to measure by comparing Resource scores with

Output scores.

As we can see there are a few surprises in the 4th column of table 2. Both Poland and

Czech Republic have higher Output to Resource score ratio than ranked second in overall

ranking Sweden. We also can not overlook amazing achievement of United Kingdom with

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a stunning 1.1 ratio and undisputed leader’s position in that field. Averages do look better

here for post-soviet countries. Western average of this ratio is only 1.37 times the Eastern

countries’ average.

Yet another interesting topic while comparing given countries is what impact does

have private funding on education system. We have to keep in mind that HE was

complimentary in all soviet countries and such funding model prevails in Poland, Czech and

Ukraine though private education institutions are present in all of these states. Distances

between numbers in the column 5 and 6 in table 2, illustrated by ratios in the column 7

indicate that private money share in expenditure on HE is substantial not only in UK where

higher education is traditionally non-complimentary and where this distance is the biggest but

also Polish and Czech systems relevantly benefit from private funding. Such an observation

does not apply to Sweden, Germany nor to Ukraine where this private involvement is

marginal though bigger in Germany than in other two.

I also find interesting comparison of numbers included in the column 6 alone. Scores

are very similar in that area, 3 countries; Germany, UK and Czech Republic received the same

score, and average score of total expenditure on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP is

actually higher for Eastern nations, raised significantly thanks to very high Ukraine’s score.

Similar observations apply to column 5 where Germany and Poland are scored equally and

Eastern countries average is higher than Western nations’.

To further clarify impact of HE system quality on country’s economy I present

yet another Output value from U21 Ranking in table 3.

Table 3. Unemployment rate of the tertiary educated compared with school leavers.

Country Unemployment rate of the tertiary educated compared with school leavers

SWEDEN 56.1

GERMANY 88.4

UK 71.5

POLAND 83.5

CZECH 96.7

UKRAINE NA

18

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

SWEDEN GERMANY UK POLAND CZECH

As we can see post-soviet republics present generally slightly higher score when

it comes to unemployment rate of the tertiary educated compared with school leavers (even

though we do not have data for Ukraine), while this is a major issue in Sweden; UK’s score

in this field is also alarming.

It should be mentioned at this point is that HE systems are not ideally similar, what

makes them even harder to compare. Nations trim their systems in accordance to their present

and future needs, applying new methods and starting new projects.

I wish to stress here interesting development in Western countries that aim to address one of

the major problems HE faces in those states: that is increasing demand for skilled workers

whilst their unemployment rate of the tertiary educated compared with school leavers is high,

meaning there is a lot of educated people in specialties that are not in demand.

An opportunity to counter that phenomenon may be found in private-public

partnership. Dual education system combining apprenticeships in a company and vocational

education is already doing well in quite a few countries, most notably Germany. This system

seems to be a proper solution to a problem of adjusting specialty choosing trends to actual

demand in the country’s economy.

This indeed quick and superficial comparison may be the start for further studies but

at this point already gives us arguments to create postulates for post-soviet countries’ HE

systems development and Western nations’ systems optimization. In general Eastern higher

education systems are backwards towards Western ones and while there is a room for

improvement in every compared here sector, we see that some indicators are already equal or

even exceed Western European scores. U21 score of total expenditure on tertiary education as

a percentage of GDP floats on similar level for all compared countries, so we can assume all

compared systems have, maybe not sufficient, but surely fair, funding which relates to each

respective country’s economic situation.

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High effectiveness values achieved by post-soviet states is also a good sign but we

can’t refuse to acknowledge output of this countries HE systems is only about half of what

Western Europeans scored. Big factor here may be focus of higher education institutions

in these countries on educating students to satisfy qualified workforce demand and not

on research. Also levels of infrastructures, which on higher education systems have to work,

that are mostly outdated, obsolete in post-soviet countries are an issue, as much of funding,

education institutions receive there, is spent on improvement of those infrastructures.

Another bright spot in this report is good score in unemployment rate of the tertiary

educated compared with school leavers of post-soviet states but we have to realize that soon

this issue may become more relevant, so surely measures to counter such an development are

advised.

All of the described countries present different levels of higher education system

advancement, but it somehow brings hope for the future. Sure they face different challenges,

but the patterns are similar and while some societies succeed where others fail, they can all

learn from each other to further improve their systems and provide us with the best higher

education possible.

20

Martin Röver-Parkes

Senior Manager at one of the biggest English firms

Does a graduate programme or internship help and prepare you for the world of work?

This is a both an interesting and pertinent question when you consider youth unemployment

(18-24year olds) is at an all-time high in the United Kingdom. In this article we focus on

the debate whether higher education alone (university undergraduate and postgraduate study)

in the UK, is enough to prepare graduates for the world of work, and within this article we

focus on the commerce world.

Whilst there is plenty of evidence – empirical and anecdotal – which demonstrates that

higher education provides both practical and academic skills, the debate still rumbles why

many leading organisation feel their new graduate employees from university are not fully

equipped for the world of work. Despite the UK having emerged (albeit slowly) from the

worst recessions in modern economics, graduates are still finding it increasingly difficult

to get their foot in the door and kick-start their professional career. On average a graduate can

apply for over 60 positions before they are successful and many are in low-skilled, low-paid

jobs.

As a graduate with both a bachelors and masters degree, I would say the answer lies

with those organisations and universities that make a commitment to developing their students

in order to successfully complete internships and graduate programmes, that then lead onto

traditional employment; ‘the first job’.

With a strong academic background, being bilingual and having experience in retail

managerial positions gained during my studies, it was still a challenge to land that first

graduate job. They all required business experience: four years in marketing, two years with

finance, three years with portfolio and marketing strategies and so on. How do you gather all

of these skills? Simply put, through exposure, experience and with an organisation that are

willing to give you these opportunities.

Understandably organisations can be somewhat reluctant to employ someone with

little or no experience, so it comes down to a ‘chicken and egg scenario’; which comes first?

You can’t easily get a position without experience; whilst you won’t get experience

without first being offered a position.

Therefore, organisations that offer graduate programmes, and universities that build

relationships with businesses to enable this, are equipping graduates with the skills they need.

This creates loyalty and can only serve to strengthen an organisation with fresh new ideas,

innovation and a different perspective.

21

These courses are not just about gaining technical skills, but about receiving a good level

of support when starting your career; a mentor to guide you, much like a teacher or professor

would. One of the most prominent examples is from entrepreneur Richard Branson:

“It's always good to have a helping hand at the start. I wouldn't have got anywhere in the airline industry without the mentorship of Sir Freddie Laker [founder of Laker Airways, below]. Now, I love mentoring young entrepreneurs” - Sir Richard Branson, 2012

Another consideration is professional qualifications and the key part they play

in securing your career and future development. Although the trend now is to also offer

professional qualifications as part of a degree (the degree is now meeting the criteria as set out

by the governing body), internships and graduate programmes differ in that they allow you

to study for a professional qualification (normally funded by the employer) whilst working.

This forms a strong partnership between hands-on work experience and learning.

Finally, the chance to rotate through different departments and gain experience

in the various functions within a business is perhaps at times undervalued. This is not about

becoming a ‘Jack of all trades and a master of none’, but affords the opportunity to gain

understanding of the interdependencies organisations have, both internally and externally.

In my experience a key element for success and cooperation lies in understanding these

interdependencies, along with stakeholder management - there is only so much a text book

can teach you.

After completing my postgraduate study I set about applying for suitable positions.

For a couple of months, however, the aforementioned issue of experience kept arising. I was

fortunate and had a breakthrough when I joined a German company on a prestigious

international graduate programme, based in the United Kingdom and Germany.

My employers believed the innovation demonstrated at university, a master’s degree and

being able to speak two languages were all key reasons for success in my application.

Throughout the twelve months on this programme many skills that were not available

at university I learnt, and built on those already acquired.

I was fortunate and had two very good mentors; one during the graduate programme,

and another in my role after completing the programme.

It was in regular meetings that guidance was offered and I was navigated through the

commercial and political jungle that is big business. This graduate opportunity taught me

many skills, both business and personal, and without it, I expect that I would likely be in

a different position to the one I’m in today. Subsequently, after finishing the programme,

a position with that organisation that utilised my skills from study and experience was

afforded me. Fast forward a couple of years, and with good mentorship, I moved on and

joined Royal Mail as a senior manager, working during a period of enormous change, going

through privatisation and major transformational developments for the business, which are

still on going.

“A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could. Find a mentor” - Sir Richard Branson, 2000

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The importance of graduate programmes has been demonstrated, as undeniably

without it I would not have progressed through my career to date. There is evidence to support

this, those without graduate or internship experience, regardless of their education, find it

more difficult to land employment and at the level to which they have studied.

What can be done to resolve this problem? Well, successful organisations (regrettably

it is often only those with more funds available) go into leading universities to cherry pick

the best talent. However, this is not exclusive; graduate fairs and strong international

marketing strategies encourage potential students to join from a global platform. Today, more

than ever, students are looking at what is offered by a university beyond getting to graduation.

No longer are students only looking at league tables, quality of teaching and social life

(thought this is still important!), but more towards the future prospects with assistance landing

a rewarding job after completing their degree.

Universities such as Bristol, Strathclyde, Warwick and Aston have built a strong

connection with the commercial world their students aspire towards in. Whether this is

in business, law, finance, economics or the sciences, it can be argued that they are more likely

to attract students and in turn develop their reputation further.

By building relationships this means those organisations and universities match

the student’s opportunities to gain the skills that are needed through internships and graduate

programmes so they can successful begin an enjoyable and prosperous career.

23

Dawid Mielcarski

Attorney at Law

Unemployment among graduates. The perspective of a young lawyer who managed.

The number of graduates of law faculties remains still on a high level (despite the general

demographic depression in the society). In Poland (similar to the other countries, not only

in Europe, but in the majority of the world) law is considered to be one of the most

perspective university faculties. Therefore, competition among its graduates on the job market

is relatively high (comparing e.g. with the technical faculties).

Thus, I am convinced that many of the law students wonder what kind of steps

undertake to succeed on the employment market? Which way follow to get their dream job?

In this paper I try to put their eyes on the main factors which, in my opinion, causes

the unemployment among law graduates. Hence, I believe analysis of those factors, might

help students to avoid material mistakes during shaping of their careers.

Generally speaking, as far as I am concerned, the most material factors determining

the level of unemployment among the Polish law graduates should be divided into 2 groups:

(1) factors dependent on the students themselves, (2) factors dependent on the reasons beyond

the students - associated mostly with demography, economy and/or politics.

The group of factors which are related to students own activity encompasses such

factors as: (1) knowledge of foreign languages, (2) "employment" experience during studies,

(3) an ability to use academic knowledge in practice, (4) possession of the so-called "soft

skills". Needless to say, it is crucial for every graduate to possess the core academic

knowledge and the higher the level of such knowledge is, the better is the initial one's position

at the beginnings of its professional life.

On the other hand, the second group of factors (dependent on external circumstances)

consists of such factors as: (1) increase of the total number of graduates (the percentage

of people with higher education in the society), (2) popularity of the law faculty among the

high school's graduates, (3) implementation of the Bolognese System to the law studies.

Initially, as per the knowledge of the foreign languages from my perspective and

experience, it is one of the most important factor which may decide whether one will get

the job or not. Nowadays lots of graduates possess very similar level of academic knowledge.

Therefore, language skills are the factor which might single them out of the generality.

Of course, among the foreign languages English has absolute priority. It is the "lingua Franca"

also for modern lawyers (like for any other professionals). Nonetheless, a lawyer who knows

second foreign language (besides English) and such language is a rare language, gains lots

of extra points of the employment market. The "rare language" does not have to be one

of those considered as "rare" by the majority (e.g. Chinese). The Polish lawyer who speaks

excellent e.g. Italian, Dutch or Swedish possess a huge advantage - ability to provide legal

assistance for the entities from respective countries in their native language. But, it has to be

stressed up that the real advantage on the employment market is only the excellent knowledge

24

of the foreign language. The level of language skills has to enable the graduates for day-to-

day work in such a language. Moreover, very often knowledge of legal English (not only

general English) is required. Referring to my experience encompassing work for 3 law firms

(including one of the biggest and best reputable in Poland) for 2 of 3 employers, excellent

knowledge of legal English was a must.

Secondly, for the avoidance of unemployment after studies it is important to gather

"employment" experience during its course. The word employment has been put into

quotation marks, because it does not have to be real employment (however obviously may

be). The internships, trainings or part time employment allow the graduates to obtain

occupational experience and give them a chance to learn how to use theory in day-to-day

practice. Once again referring to my experience - numerous internships (lasting even few

months) in such entities as: court, public prosecutor office, law firms were a huge plus during

my beginnings on the employment market. Broadly speaking, I was hired for my first job after

obtaining the diploma in the law firm, were I had had 6 months internship before.

Furthermore, another factor related to the practical part of graduates' education is

ability to use academic knowledge in practice. In my opinion it is beyond doubts that the

program of studies (not only law studies) is very theoretical (at least was such during my

studies). For this reason, graduates do not possess enough practical knowledge and skills.

When I graduated, I knew how to write pleadings or how interpret statutes mostly because of

my internships. Luckily, this issue has recently been changing and the law students are

teaching more in a case-studies manner.

Last but not least, for the graduates starting their presence on the employment market

so-called "soft skills" are important hardly as well as their "hard", professional skills. Among

this skills are present such skills as: negotiation skills, time organizing, team work (important

especially for the young lawyers who want to work as in-houses), public speaking. In my

opinion, the best way to gather such skills is to participate in students' associations. For me,

as per the "soft-skills" it was very fruitful to work in European Law Students' Association

during my university education.

The second group of factors refers to external (beyond graduates) circumstances.

Those circumstances are dependent to demography, economy and politics.

The first factor of this group is a general increase of the total number of graduates.

Nowadays in Poland the percentage of people with higher education is growing rapidly (from

6.8% in the middle of the nineties to 17.5% in 2011). Thus, due to such rapid increase

of numbers, the competition among graduates in employment market has also risen.

Subsequently, among the increasing number of graduates, law faculty graduates are

present in large number. The law faculty (despite the graduates' problems to find prospective

job) is still considered by the high schools' graduates as one of the most perspective university

faculty. Within the society the lawyers are deemed as the prosperous persons and such a myth

often influence on youngsters decisions on choice of the university faculty.

Afterwards, the number of law graduates (and competition of the employment market

resulting of this number) will increase due to implementation of the Bolognese System

to the law studies. Until recent past the law studies had been conducted as the solid 5-year

studies. After implementation of the Bolognese System it has been divided to 3-year bachelor

studies and 2-year master studies. Before that change, law studies were conducted either

by the public universities or by the few biggest private colleges. Due to such implementation,

the 2-year master studies have been (and sill are) commenced by the large number of private

25

colleges. Therefore, the number of young lawyers who previously obtained non-law Bachelor

will increase. This will surely enlarge competition on the employment market for law

graduates (due to further increase of law graduates number).

Summing up, to avoid unemployment and success on the employment market, it is

essential for the graduates to connect "water and fire"- theory with practice. Moreover, such

mixture should be flavored with the large bunch of knowledge of foreign languages (on the

level allowing professional work in such languages) and a little bit of "soft skills".

26

Jan Łowiński

Student of physics at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ)

Out of the frying pan, into the fire? About my removal to Switzerland

When you enter an examiner’s office after stressful 3 hours waiting in the corridor, because there was no examinations schedule, you do not really expect to gossip with the lecturer about your classmates. Especially when the chat starts with ‘Mr. Lowinski,

don’t you think that Mrs. Kowalska is really weird?’. Welcome to a Polish university.

I studied at one of the best technical universities in Poland for three years. Not really

important which one, because confronting my impressions about the higher education

in Poland with others, I have one conclusion. All of them are similar. At least in the matter

that I want to write about. All of them are a larger or smaller disappointment for their

students.

One of the most annoying things that you experience when studying at a Polish

university is lack of respect towards students. At every point you are reminded that

the university was not created to teach you something, but to give work to the academic staff

and you are there only because your presence is somehow connected with the funding. So low

quality lectures, many hours waiting for the exam and a huge number of redundant courses

are something that every Polish student knows very well. It was amusing to me, student

of physics, that definitely the most demanding exam at my first semester was an exam

in ‘Fundamentals of Management’.

On the other hand, what can sound paradoxical, a large number of the students are

frustrated about their studies mostly because of the other students. Selling and buying ready

projects, calculating how to pass, instead of how to learn something and copying other

students’ lab reports from the previous years are widely spread. And it is awarded

by the lecturers with high grades, despite some of them being aware of those practices. As one

can imagine, it has a highly demotivational effect on more ambitious students. What is scary

is the fact that acceptance of those practices is partially based on official guidelines

of curriculum creation, where one can read: ‘learning outcomes should not reflect

the ambitions of the staff, but real possibility to achieve these effects by the weakest student,

who should pass the exam’. And the question is why ‘the student who should pass the exam’

is almost every student. And why some individuals decide to study, despite not wanting

to learn anything, in fact. I’ll try to answer those questions with my talk.

As one can presume, because of the issues I mentioned above, at some point I felt

a desperate need to change something in the academic path I had taken and move to another

university.

27

I was finishing my bachelor degree and it was a great opportunity to leave my parents’

home and start more independent life in a different city. I took a chance. My choice was

Zurich and the technical university there.

New university – revelation

The new and the old university are like day and night. Everything that had irritated me

in Poland was absent in Switzerland. I have the impression that there are no halfway

solutions, everything is done in 100 %. The only thing that a student is supposed to do is to sit

down and study. I was delighted.

Of course there are some things that I do not like about my studies, but the point is that

they are not incomplete or bad quality. They are done in the best possible way, yet I simply

do not like the idea of them. For example a 20-minute oral examination as the only

assessment of an entire semester’s work and knowledge.

One could argue that this immense difference exists mainly due to large inequality

in the budgets of both universities – if we divide budget by number of students, the amount

of money of the Zurich university is 2000 times larger than the Polish one. I will try to show

that is not the only important factor.

New quality of the student life

There is for sure one thing related to my studies in Poland that I cannot complain

about. This is the student life. And I am not thinking only about partying, but meeting people,

starting new friendships, strengthening old ones, participating in film and music festivals.

If I had an idea to do something crazy, there were always some people who were ready to join

me. When I was leaving Poland, I did not consider that as a value - it was so natural for me.

The student flat that I moved in soon after coming to Switzerland gave me a very

significant experience about the student life in Zurich. We were four guys living there,

In Poland would be synonymous to not very healthy accommodation especially for your liver.

While living with my Swiss flatmates I explored the difference between word ‘alone’ and

‘lonely’ very well. During four months of staying there, I ate dinner alone at the table all but

twice. I drank beer with them once, and I do not even know if they have any siblings.

Of course it is some kind of an extreme case, and that is why I decided to move to a new

place.

Ordnung muss sein

New flatmates are much more open and we spend quite a lot of time together having

fun. When I moved to the new place I started feeling much better in Zurich. Of course

to some extent, because Swiss and Polish society are so different that I would need much

more time to adapt than six months.

Just before I left for my summer vacations I survived my first true culture clash.

We used the same language, the topic was common, but we were not able to understand each

other. And the problem was trivial, a cleaning schedule.

For me it was obvious: I am leaving for 2 months and during that time I am not

obliged to care about the flat in anyway. Bum! Hard wall! Nothing more wrong. ‘If you want

28

to leave for so long, you should have done your cleaning duties that will occur during your

absence before by exchanging shifts with other people. Because we are a community and even

if you leave for vacations, you do not leave the community. By cleaning you express your

respect to the other members of the community.’ It was a vivid example of one of very

significant differences between Swiss and Polish. In Poland we do not care so much about

intangible general society but rather about our family and friends. In Switzerland the society

is one of very prime values.

By describing my student adventures and misadventures I wanted to emphasize that

the reason why Polish and Swiss universities are so distant from each other in the world

ranking is probably not only money issue. Maybe it is a difference between a catholic and

protestant country or Germanic and Slavonic? Whatever is the full answer in my talk I will try

to show more quantifiable factors that could be responsible. I will not give the ultimate

answer, but rather attempt to sketch the most important relationships.

29

Katarzyna Piętkiewicz

Students Parliament of the Republic of Poland

Student in the centre of attention

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” Confucius

After having delivered a speech on student perspective on implementation of Student-Centred

Learning (SCL) approach into Polish Universities to the stakeholders of Higher Education

(HE), we discussed the importance of this approach for Polish students, Higher Education

Institutions (HEI) and policy-makers. In this short article I will try to sum up the key elements

of SCL that are in the process of improvement in the Polish HE system.

Constructivism in education clearly states teacher’s and student’s role in the process

of acquiring cognitive competences. Students’ needs and voice should be located

in the centre. A student should actively participate in interactive tasks, which, as a result, will

build up their knowledge and facilitate individual perception of reality. As a consequence,

a student becomes greatly autonomous, which makes them responsible for their learning path,

whereas a teacher acts here more as a mentor, tutor, guide. Such a setting requires mutual

respect of students and teachers, which may currently be difficult to imagine in our education

system.

Importantly, as much SCL seems to be about the shift towards respectful, comprehensive

partnership between a student and a teacher, it is just a tip of an iceberg. SCL demands

a series of adjustments to be made. A rigid, conservative attitude to the higher education

system should be replaced with a model of student-friendly structure with supportive

administration, which would allow to fulfil the SCL’s main objectives. However, it needs

to be taken care of that restructuring would not mean multiplying the bureaucratic procedures,

but facilitating the execution of prerequisite measures.

We can consider SCL from different perspectives – legislative, institutional, but above all,

we should look at it with student eyes. All the stakeholders should however take

up complementary actions and use certain tools in order to stimulate the shift towards student-

centred learning. Let me introduce three points that are crucial for SCL’s implementation and

review from student perspective.

1. Recognition – has a multidimensional meaning. Diploma recognition, ECTS

accreditation and RPL are equally important, hence there should be particular attention

drawn to create such procedures that would be applicable and well-performed in a real

life and not only on the paper.

2. Student participation in creating curricula – plays particularly significant role.

Students must be engaged in policy- and decision-making processes from the grass-

root up to the national level.

3. Peer learning – should be included in syllabi in a form of interactive tasks based

on mutual education. Students are in better position to help to even up the level

30

in the group and additionally are crucial in the process of acquiring cognitive

competences.

Obviously, there are further aspects that need to be improved in order to implement

the SCL approach into HEI in Poland. We need to look closer at and adjust mobility, social

dimension, quality assurance, representation of student bodies’, and more importantly,

we need to gain as open and as inclusive attitude towards changes among HEI and policy-

makers.

Although, one may give several examples of SCL approach in Polish HEI, we still

have a long way to go. Talking about putting a student into the centre of teaching and learning

process has yet to bear fruits. In the times where all the attention is concentrated on enhancing

governance of higher education, we should balance public debate by putting more focus

on the core – the approach to didactics. After all, educating the society is the crucial outcome

of HE system.

Online version available atwww.wroclaw.elsa.org.pl/efhe

Com

pila

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by R

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a Łu

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