The old college try
Marian Harasimiuk is rector of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Polish Universities 2002-2005.
This year there are 1.8 million students at all types of institutions of higher learning in our country. In terms of the total number of students, we are in fifth place among the 25 current members and accession countries of the European Union.
At this time of European unification we must ask ourselves a question: what is the place of the students and graduates of our universities in the nascent European Higher Education Area? In other words, can they meet the challenge of living in a European economy that is knowledge-based and increasingly IT-orientated? Can our academe take a place appropriate to its potential in the European Research Area?
The country's academic world has undergone huge changes over the last 12 years, connected primarily to the threefold increase in the number of students and the rise of the independent sector. Unfortunately, this quantitative leap has brought with it a number of negative phenomena, the most serious of which are lower standards of teaching and serious personnel shortages in certain subjects which enjoy the most popularity among the young. At the same time, we see a serious problem in insufficient funding from the state budget, which threatens the universities' future development.
Universities, which represent the largest pool of research and teaching staff, recognised the mounting problems as early as 1997 and came to an agreement on raising the standard of teaching. The University Accreditation Commission, which sets quality of education standards for most courses of study on the basis of European universities' experience, has to date awarded 300 courses at all universities teaching quality standard certificates. It is also worth observing that other institutions of higher learning are also subscribing to university accreditation procedures; for example, technical universities, academies of agriculture and economics.
The universities use pre-accession funds from the EU to a very large extent. The Tempus, Jean Monet and currently Erasmus-Socrates programmes have provided financial and organisational aid that has allowed for the introduction of the European system of point transferral for students, the modernisation of the teaching base and the creation of new courses. In addition, opportunities have been created for large-scale contacts between teachers and students from leading European universities.
The universities are developing language courses (practically all European languages) and courses in IT, while huge numbers of young people are studying economics, law and political science. Courses such as biotechnology and environmental protection are also up to the highest standards.
A large number of our universities have students from other European countries, even from other continents. Student exchange on a significant scale and opinions that we receive from universities to which we send our students allow for an objectively verifiable statement: our graduates are prepared to face the challenge of the European labour market in terms of the knowledge they gain at our universities.
Rapid changes in the system of foreign-language teaching and the introduction in this respect of European methods and standards, including opportunities of gaining European certificates, allow us to presume that the language barrier will not constitute a major obstacle in job searching in other European countries.
We are fully aware that not all problems have been solved and that the immediate implementation of IT technologies to our library systems and university management is necessary. We are in the process of introducing e-learning methods. A large number of post-graduate courses are now offered, which represents a step towards entering the European Area of Lifelong Learning.
The universities are fully aware of all the difficulties facing them on the road to accession, yet they are determined to continue on that path. It is a great chance for quicker economic growth and civilisational advance - a chance for the whole nation and for its young in particular.
