Strategies of higher education institutions towards postgraduate education in Poland

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the problem of the development of postgraduate education in Poland. It aims to analyse how the different types of higher education institutions (HEIs), such as public universities, public universities of applied sciences (UAS) and private sector organisations, engage in postgraduate learning. It draws data from 11 case studies of HEIs which were individually studied with the help of an analysis of institutional strategic documents, as well as 49 individual in-depth interviews with university leaders and academic staff involved in postgraduate education. Drawing on this data, the paper offers two major conclusions. The hierarchy of organisational resources determines the institutional policy of HEIs and provides an account of different levels of institutional involvement in the development of postgraduate studies. It demonstrates the reason private HEIs are the most active in the market of postgraduate education followed by UAS. Second, private HEIs depict typical features for the ‘complete organisations’ helping them to acquire the lion’s share of the postgraduate market. However, public universities with traditional governance models remain relatively passive in this field, allowing individual academics to perform their business.KEYWORDS: Lifelong learningpostgraduate studieshigher education institutionsresource dependence theoryPolish higher education AcknowledgmentsDominik Antonowicz gratefully acknowledges the support of Ministry of Education and Science through the programme “Science for Society” grant number NdS/529032/2021/2021.Agnieszka Anielska gratefully acknowledges the support of National Science Centre through the Preludium Programme (grant number 2016/23/N/HS6/00502)Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. The data comes from POLON (The Integrated System of Information on Science and Higher Education) and offers public data about science and higher education https://polon.nauka.gov.pl/siec-polonAdditional informationFundingThe article presents the results of the research performed as a part of the project “Higher education and non-traditional students. Strategies of universities in the field of adult education on the example of postgraduate studies”. It has been financed by the National Science Centre – Narodowe Centrum Nauki (Grant No. 2016/23/N/HS6/00502).