ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes aspects of rankings in the Polish context. It defines the impact of rankings on University of Warsaw (UW). The chapter suggests a strong link between the audit culture' and the increasing role of various accountability techniques in higher education, global rankings, and national parameterization' based on output measurements of publications. In the 1990s, Polish higher education policy was focused mostly on educational expansion, financially supported by both public and private sources of funding. Jagiellonian is the oldest Polish university and is the UW's only national competitor. From a European comparative perspective, the Perspektywy ranking focuses on institutional research achievements to a greater degree than others, with 45 percent of the scoring linked directly to research. Research funding can have an impact on the institutional development only to a very limited degree.
