Polish Higher Education and the Global Change

1. dr Dominik Antonowicz Insitute Sociology Nicoalus Copernicus University in Toruń Polish Higher Education and the Global Change

2. Research Problem • The Polish higher education changed as Poland was revolutionized by the transformation of 1989. It was a major turn-over both culturally and institutionally • Despite 20 years since the revolution took off there are at least three fundamental issues in the Polish higher education that remains unclear. • a) Where the Polish higher education is heading to? • b) What kind of social forces, political principles or cultural values drive it there? • c) Why development of the Polish higher education is at least patchy or completely incoherent?

3. Understandingtransformation • There are two simple ways of defining transformation: • a) spontaneous change • b) commanded and controlled change • The concept of the world polity focuses on the question how global processes shape performance and structure of the nation-state and influence the life of individuals across the globe. • It is based on a fundamental assumption that national societies are surrounded by transnational organizations, rooted into world culture and involved in a discourse, which exists under names of the ‘world society’ or ‘world polity’ (Thomas et. al 1987). • World cultural principles and global institutions exercise a profound influence on states, enterprises and individuals. • Institutional settings such as law, regulations, policies or norms shape organizational structure and behavior of the (political) actors(Boli 1993).

4. The roots of world society • 1. Stichweh (2004) does not point a particular period in the mankindhistory. This uncertainty exhibits perfectly the title of the book written by Andre Gunder Frank and Barry Gills (1993) “The world system. 500 years or 5000? • 2. A long sixteen century (1450-1640) – Immanuel Wallerstein argues that world society draws its roots from the history of trade between various world regions in 16th and 17th century. The major concern of his analysis is concentrated on the division of labor with particular focus on center/peripheries relations. • 3. The arrival of world society in the postwar period, a new type of social order based development of network relations and growing economic and political interdependence. This process has been accelerated by a rapid growth of new means of communicationwhich ignored borders and largely dismissed a problem of geographical distance. 3. .

5. World society • A polity is a "system of creating value through the collective conferral of authority" (Meyer 1980: 111-2). The system is constituted by a set of rules, also called frames or models" (Boli and Thomas 1997: 172). • The world polity contains no single actor or institution defining what is valuable for the world as a whole. "Instead of a central actor, the culture of world society allocates responsible and authoritative actorhood to nation-states" (Meyer et al. 1997: 169). • Their authority is rooted in a world culture: a set of universally applicable models that define who are legitimate actors in world society, what goals they can pursue and how they can pursue them. • While world polity models define sovereign states as key actors, enabling authorities to construct collective goals and devise the means or programs to produce them, state officials are not the only ones engaged in such authoritative creation of value (1980: 112).

6. Who are agents of the world society? • Transnational governmental organizations; (UE,UN, OPEC) • Transnational non-governmental organizations (European Students Associations, ENQA) • Transnational corporations (Microsoft, Rating Agencies Ernst &Young)

7. Expanding the change • In stateless world society, no single authoritative actor can control culture. Such lack of exclusive control creates ample room for innovation (1997: 169) • Much change stems from "the dynamism that is generated by the rampant inconsistencies and conflicts within world culture itself," especially "contradictions inherent in widely varied cultural goods: equality versus liberty, progress versus justice," and the like (1997: 172 • World-cultural standards "create strong expectations regarding global integration and propriety"and therefore "can easily provoke world-societal reactions seeking to put things right" when individuals, companies, or states violate those standards (1997: 175). • More concretely, non-governmental organizations can be a force for change: "In mobilizing around and elaborating world-cultural principles, INGOs lobby, criticize, and convince states to act on those principles" (Boli and Thomas: 187).

8. Conditions for diffusion 1. Cultural similarities 2. Structural background 3. Theorising

9. 1.Cultural similarities • Common cultural background and share of similar sets of cultural values make changes expand more rapidly „where actors are seen as falling into the same category, diffusion should be rapid” Meyer & Strang(1993:490).

10. 2. Structural background • DiMaggio and Powell (1983) explained that institutional isomorphism comes from cohesive pressure from the state or dominant organization. • It applies to situations where organizations which seem to be largely unable to develop individual optimal strategies. • Formal organizations tend to increase their capacity for spreading innovative practices because they are able to structure conditions for transferring change and accelerating the process of diffusion.

11. 3. Theorising • (1) theorizing the content (knowledge society) • (2) theorizing the adopters (developing or modern countries) • (3) theorizing the diffusion mechanisms (road maps)

12. A metaphor of an isolated Island • Meyer, Ramirez, Boli and Thomas (1997)use a hypothetic example of an isolated island to review the process of incorporating a new society into the world society. • Any newly established state wanting to receive the international recognition must submits to widely recognized values such as the human rights, private property or rules of law. Otherwise it is faced with a wide range of serious consequences from the world society and its powerful actors. Hence, global models often become persuasive at the world level due to deeply rooted belief of its universal applicability. • It is usually done under an authoritative flag of modernity (or in fact modernization) which largely exclude any form of alternative models regardless local tradition, culture and structure of political institutions (e.g IMF policy in Argentinean financial crises)

13. Poland as an isolated island • The Iron Curtain isolated Poland form the world society • Transformation of the year 1989 has various different meanings but it undoubtedly opened Poland to the (Western) world politically, economically, culturally. • Polish higher education had no choice (?) but to perform differently. • Sustaining „ancient regime” was simply impossible....... if the Polish higher education wanted to be recognized in the Western countries

14. Was the Polish higher education an isolated island of a special kind? • The Polish higher education in the period of 1945-1990 was largely anisolated island not disturbed by worldwide trends. • a) expansion of higher education (1950-1960) • b) demoratization university (1960-1970) • c) enterpising higher education (1980-1990)\ • Major major political (ideological) shifts in the West during the postwar period to study had little impact on higher education in Poland

15. Cultural transformation of the revolution 1989 • Individualism and freedom of choice • Free market economy • Pluralism of ideas and beliefs • Social hierarchy based on merit • Democracy

16. Transformation of the Polish Higher education 1989-2009 • Democratization of university and higher education; (Higher Education Act 1990) • Massification of higher education (1995-2007). A number of students grew five times from 400 thousand up to 2 million. • Commercialization of teaching (Higher Education Act 1990)

17. The World society and the Polish higher education- questions to be addressed • 1. Howthe world society has influenced developments in the Polish higher education since 1989? • 2. In what areas the Polish government applied the policy principles of the world society and adopt the worldwide prominence of institutional settings? • 3. Why in some aspects Polish higher education remains an isolated island? How strong are the local forces?

18. Agents of the world society in higher education • World Bank • United Nations • European Commission • OECD • IMF • European Commission (The Bologna Process) • World University Rankings • Citation indexes

19. Means of exercising the power of the world society 1. International Policy Reports, Reviews etc. 2. Rating system – informal authority to distribute marks,building hierarchies, Science Citation Index 3. Experts – publications, expertises, “international experts” 4.Benchmarking systems (indicating a good practice) – quality assurance system 5. Comparative statistics (forming categories) “Education at a glance”

20. The world society and local forces Poland is a classic example of the battlefield between the world society and the local forces: (a) access, (b) quality of teaching and research, (c ) effectiveness. The local forces “academic oligarchy” (Clark) underline the exepctionalism or uniqueness of the Polish HE. There is a number of issues that has been raised by the local forces in the name of defence of the Polish HE against the world society.

21. The Main Battlefields • Measuring academic performance by quantity indicators. • Introducing the Bologna system • Public accountability of universities, departments and individuals in higher education • “Habilitation” • The power of the academic corporation in awarding degrees • Cost-sharing

22. Further issues to be addressed • Does the world polity model provide an explanation for understanding changes in the Polish higher education? • Where are the limits of influence of the world polity on national systems of higher education? • Does the world polity apply to other areas of the Polish transformation? • Can the world polity be used to analyze policy change in higher education in other developing countries?

23. Thank you