ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that apart from changes at the systemic and institutional levels, successful reform implementation struggles with a gradual change in academic beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. Institutions change both swiftly, radically and slowly, gradually. Until 2009, Polish universities were largely unreformed, following the initial radical changes right after the collapse of communism in 1989: their adaptations to new postcommunist and market realities were much slower than adaptations of other public sector institutions, including social assistance, pension schemes and so on. Since 2009, Polish universities have been clearly involved in the process of being turned into organizational actors and have been on their way to achieving full organizational actorhood. Polish universities as organisations were largely unable to reproduce its previously taken-for-granted actions. Importantly, in the absence of convincing ideas about the future of universities produced by the academic community in the 2000s, new ideas were produced by governments involved in reform programmes.
