The Third Mission of the University as a Continuation of the Polish Intelligentsia Ethos. The Case Study of The Jagiellonian University

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine to what extent the attitudes of university lecturers are a continuation of Polish intelligentsia ethos and to what extent – they are a response to contemporary socio-economic challenges of an academic environment. The research hypothesis put forward by the author stipulated that the third mission of the university should be perceived as having more axiological than practical dimension as cooperation with the economic and social environment of the university encompasses the values developed by the culture of education in the process of historical growth of the nation. The primary source of the research were the results of a questionnaire survey conducted on a sample group of students and lecturers at one of Poland’s largest universities. The results indicate the tendency to return to the classic ethos of the Polish intelligentsia in which the protection of diversity and national identity came first, contrary to global trends.