24.05.2017 change 24.05.2017

Law 2.0 takes shape - changes at universities in the announcements of the Ministry of Science

New paths to the doctoral degree, more freedom for universities in shaping their policies, changes in the division of universities according to their missions - this is the image of changes in the higher education sector emerging from the announcements of the Minister of Science Jarosław Gowin.

Work is underway in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education on the Law 2.0, new law on higher education. The scientific community has been included in the process of creating assumptions for the new legislation. In September this year, the Ministry of Science is expected to present the assumptions of the new law.

However, an image of changes already emerges from this year\'s announcement of the leadership of the Ministry of Science.

DIVISION OF UNIVERSITIES

The Ministry of Science is reflecting on a new division of universities. Jarosław Gowin would like to see a group of research universities established in Poland alongside didactic and research and didactic schools. The ministry does not rule out that research universities will be sub-category of academic institutions.

Research institutions, according to the science minister, should be rewarded for conducting breakthrough research of great importance to world science. "We would like to ensure full autonomy of these universities, absolutely minimize any form of state intervention or control by the ministry" - Gowin noted in April. In addition, the Minister of Science would like the involvement in real research to be the main form of study at research universities.

The Ministry of Science does not want other higher education institutions to lose out on the establishment of research universities. "Financing research universities is additional funding, it must come from an increase in spending on science and higher education in 2018 and in the following years" - Gowin said in April.

AUTONOMY

The Ministry of Science has repeatedly reassured that the Law 2.0 would guarantee more autonomy for universities. The provisions should be designed to allow higher education institutions to regulate more matters in their own statutes, rather than referring to the provisions of the law and regulations.

STUDIES

The Ministry assures that the Law 2.0 will not introduce fees for studying. Although Jarosław Gowin believes that medical studies should be paid - which would be linked to a scholarship system - this topic is not going to be addressed in the new higher education law.

Law 2.0 is unlikely to introduce compulsory entrance exams, as Jarosław Gowin assured in May.

The Minister also wonders about changes in the system of extramural studies. The changes are expected to reduce the intensity of classes (so that they do not last from morning to evening), which would result in the extension of the duration of studies.

According to the minister, one of the issues to consider is also improving the quality of first-cycle studies, especially in vocational schools - so that employers would "treat them as full-fledged higher education".

HUMANITIES

When talking about the humanities in April this year, Gowin expressed the opinion that in their case the mass approach to education "becomes a trap". "The humanities make sense and are very much needed. These should be truly elitist studies" - the minister said at the time.

EDUCATION OF DOCTORAL STUDENTS

The science ministry is also in the process of rebuilding the model of doctoral education. In May this year, the ministry announced the plan to introduce three paths to obtaining a doctoral degree. The first possibility is to participate in doctoral programs conducted at the university or intercollegiate level. The second path would be extramural. The third solution in turn would involve grants in the National Science Centre competition for outstanding doctoral students and promoters.

SCIENTIFIC CAREER

As for the habilitation, in May the Minister of Science mentioned that the matter was still not decided. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education is wondering whether habilitation should be a separate academic degree or rather a "special qualification that gives certain powers, especially to promote of doctors". In both cases, doctors should have the status of independent researchers.

Earlier, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education considered the idea of the so-called large doctorate. In that solution, scientific independence would be achieved by fulfilling two conditions: obtaining a doctoral and an independent research grant.

Gowin supports the proposal that professors at the age of 70 should be excluded from the decision-making process at universities and retire. However, as he noted, it is not clear whether this solution would not be too expensive.

UNIVERSITY SYSTEM AND ACTIVITY

The Ministry Of Science expressed interest in the idea of creating a new body at the universities - board of trustees elected by the university senate. "Half of the members would represent the university, and half would be the representatives of the socio-economic environment. "The board of trustees would elect the rector" - the Minister of Science said in March.

It is also planned to transfer the right to offer studies, educate doctoral students and award degrees, from the organizational unit level to the level of the whole university. "We want to move away from the model in which universities are federations of faculties" - Gowin said in May.

He also announced the departure from the current classification of disciplines. In place of the current three-tiered, a two-tier, OECD-based classification would be introduced.

The ministry is not planning to depart from the Bologna system. "The right to autonomously decide whether courses of study are conducted as uniform master\'s or two-level courses will only be granted to research universities. In case of other universities we want to keep the existing rules" - Gowin noted in May.

The Minister of Science is also considering a change in the approach to teacher education. "Teachers should be educated in uniform, 5-year courses, and they should be educated exclusively at classical universities and pedagogical universities" - the Minister of Science and Higher Education argued in March.

The ministry is also considering changes that concern the minimum staffing rules - the required number of researchers employed by each unit. "We are inclined to completely remove the minima" - the Minister of Science said in March.

Jarosław Gowin also said that his ministry was working on improving the possibility of financing universities from the budgets of local governments.

***

At the end of May 2016, the Ministry of Science selected three independent research teams in a competition. The teams received grants to develop and consult the assumptions for the new law. The results of the teams\' work were presented at the turn of February and March 2017. These proposals became the starting point for further work on the bill.

In parallel to the work of the three teams, since October 2016 the Ministry of Science and Higher Education has been organizing a series of academic debates in the academic community. Program conferences of the National Congress of Science are organized monthly, each time in a different city, and concern the topics relevant to drafting the law. In September, the assumptions of the new Law on Higher Education will be presented at the National Congress of Science in Kraków.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Ludwika Tomala

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