The president signed an amendment that will facilitate offering studies with general academic profile

On Tuesday, August 4, the president signed the law passed by the Sejm on 25 June (which the Senate has not amended).

The amendment changes only one provision that defines the conditions required to obtain permission to offer studies with general academic profile by a university organizational unit (for example a faculty), which has no powers to award degrees in the area and field to which the field of study in question belongs.

Changes in the provisions concerning the possibility of offering studies with general academic and practical profile were introduced in earlier amendments to the Law on Higher Education of 2011 and 2014. According to regulations, the practical profile of studies should be focused on the acquisition of practical skills, obtained, among others, during workshops taught by persons with professional experience gained outside the university. General academic profile, in turn, will be carried out on the assumption that more than half of the curriculum consists of activities aimed at gaining in-depth knowledge.

According to the previous provisions, a unit applying for authorisation to offer studies with general academic profile had to meet three requirements: recruit the required staff, conduct research, and obtain at least a positive assessment of the quality of education by the Polish Accreditation Committee for the first or second degree studies with practical profile. In the amendment, the words "with practical profile" are deleted from this provision.

This provision was a problem especially in relation to courses of study with general academic profile, offered before the entry into force of the amendment of the Law on Higher Education of 2014.

The literal wording of the previous provisions required that the university units, which were not authorized to award degrees in the given field, and wished to continue teaching the courses with general academic profile, should not only hire the required staff and conduct research, but also should first change the profile of education to practical. Only after a positive assessment for the practical profile by the Polish Accreditation Committee, they could apply again for granting permission to offer studies with general academic profile.

The amendment will allow the units to maintain already granted authorizations to offer courses with general academic profile, if the course is evaluated positively by the Polish Accreditation Committee (this evaluation now does not have to apply to study courses with practical profile), while unit meets the conditions to carry out general academic profile.

"The obligation of universities to adjust education programs, as a rule, has not yet translated into more direct application in practice" - explained to PAP representatives of the press office of the Ministry of Science during the parliamentary work on the amendment. According to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the periods provided for in the Law for adjustment of the profiles and training programs are sufficiently long.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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