Non-university sector of higher education closer to the labour market: the Polish experience

Abstract

Higher education in many countries has been influenced by major factors of change due to globalization and reinforced by the development of internationalization, competition, new and different social demands, strategic importance of higher education as a business, etc. As a result of a tremendous growth in the number of students, higher education is moving towards 'mass studies'; in many cases, this is not coupled with proportional increases in expenditure on education, thus lowering the quality of education. Many countries are trying to solve this problem by developing two sectors of higher education, which may be called 'university sector' and 'vocational/non-university sector'. While the mission of the university sector is to educate intellectual élites, higher vocational education schools should, in principle, offer mass education at the undergraduate/first-stage level. Both types of higher education institutions are needed, and thus one could not speak of any subordination of one sector to another. In 1997 the Polish Parliament passed the Act on Vocational Higher Schools. The Act served as the basis for the establishment of the Accreditation Commission for Vocational Higher Schools, which has the task of laying down educational standards and defined conditions which should be met in order to establish and provide courses in specific vocational specialization as well as staff requirements for such specialization. Furthermore, standards were introduced for teaching facilities and curriculum contents. During the 3 years since the introduction of the Act, 16 public higher vocational education schools and 44 non-public higher vocational schools have been established.