Tackling knowledge ‘like a business’? Rethinking the modernisation of higher education in Poland

The year 1989 marked the official end of communist rule in Poland and the replacement of ‘Gosplan’ by new instruments for liberal-democratic governance. In terms of the economy this heralded a departure from Gosplan’s five-year planning cycles, performance targets and the ‘propaganda of success’. Paradoxically, however, 27 years later, the marketisation of higher education in Poland has been accompanied by a continuation of Gosplan thinking. This is manifested in a neoliberal vision of the modern, ‘corporate’ university as a largely utilitarian enterprise, but subject to a style of performance management strongly resonant of the Soviet era. This article analyses the thinking, ideas and ideologies that have shaped contemporary higher education in Poland. It is contended that the rise of the ‘corporate university’ signals the twilight of the Humboldtian tradition and raises questions about what the corporate ideal of ‘excellence’ may mean for the future of the university.     

Do gender and physical attractiveness affect college grades?

In this study, data on grades awarded for bachelor and master theses at a large Polish university were used to identify possible discrimination on gender or physical attractiveness. The focus is on the gap between the grades awarded by the advisor (who knows the student personally) and the referee (who typically does not, so that gender is less salient and attractiveness is not observable). This provides an excellent control for actual quality of the work, which is often problematic in previous literature. Observations on nearly 15,000 students are available, of which some 2600 also have their physical attractiveness rated and are included in the analysis. It can thus be checked if the advisor–referee grade gap depends on students’ gender and attractiveness, also in interaction with their genders. Based on stereotypes discussed in the literature one can hypothesise that females are treated relatively favourably by advisors (and males by referees). Likewise, it can be expected that physically attractive individuals’ advisors award them relatively high grades. Overall, we observe some evidence that females indeed get relatively high grades from advisors and no evidence of influence of physical attractiveness.     

Towards the Entrepreneurial University

In 1991, a local notable from the Ma ^ oposkie voivodship of Poland created a private business school in the town of Nowy Sacz. In a period of ten years, this institution became one of the most successful private higher education institutions in Poland. Basing himself on Jerzy Dietl's seven criteria for institutional survival, the author describes the steps that he took to build up this institution and to guarantee its survival within its regional and then its national and international environments. According to the author, the steps to the survival and success of the Higher School of Business-National Louis University could serve as a blueprint for the regeneration of higher education in Poland.     

Prospects for the Development of Private Higher Education in Poland

The development of private (non-state) higher education institutions in Poland has been a phenomenon of increasing importance since 1990. It is a paradox of their existence, particularly in small towns with no previous tradition of higher education, that they have been more successful than the state higher education institutions in educating young people of working-class and peasant background, even though they charge tuition fees. In many ways, the private higher education institutions are more responsive to the demands of an economy in transition than are the state institutions, and they tend to operate more efficiently. Also, they have been rapid to adopt the "Mode 2" variety of knowledge generation. The creation of private higher education institutions has been a stimulus to regional development in Poland.     

What types of functions may be the lower Bohl function of a diagonal discrete linear time-varying systems?

In this paper, we give the necessary and sufficient conditions for a function f to be a lower Bohl function of a diagonal discrete linear time-varying systems.     

Polish ultras in the post-socialist transformation

Abstract

The world of radical football fans across Europe is dominated by anti-system groups. While their sympathies in the west of the continent are mostly leftist, the ultras in the east tend to display right-wing attitudes. Poland makes a particularly interesting case in point, as the most intensive and emotional ideological criticism of the processes of ‘transformation’ and ‘modernisation’ is to be observed at the stadiums. As a result of historical developments, opposition against the system in the country can only be expressed using Catholic–patriotic symbolism, which in the case of collective actions of radical football supporters has produced sociocultural and aesthetic effects not to be found anywhere else in Europe.     

Factors and conditions promoting academic resilience: a TIMSS-based analysis of five Asian education systems

It is well documented that academic achievement of students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tends to be below their more socially advantaged peers. Several studies have identified factors and conditions that facilitate academic success for disadvantaged students (i.e., promote academic resilience). However, one of the main criticisms of this body of research is in the set of variables that explain academic success for low-SES students and which is not very different from the variables that would explain academic success for all students. The objectives of this article are dual: firstly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic success, regardless of student SES, and secondly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic resilience, that is, exclusively for low-SES students. To this end, we used data from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Japan in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011. The study sample covered 23,354 students in 720 schools in the five countries. The strategy for analysis was driven by fit of logistic regression models, first predicting the probability of academic success and then subsequent identification of variables significant as predictors for success within the pool of low-SES students. Results indicated that variables, such as positive student attitude to mathematics, teacher confidence in student performance and the test language being spoken at home, were associated with greater chances of academic success. High academic expectations and time spent on mathematics at home demonstrated a differential effect between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in Singapore. In Korea, being male (gender) and in Taipei, low levels of bullying at school, increased the likelihood of resilience. Results suggested that interventions impacting behavior reflected in differentially associated variables could help disadvantaged students to become academically resilient.