ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to the role that Polish higher education institutions have played in preparing Poland to meet the challenges of democracy and a market economy. The country’s political, economic, and social systems have undergone considerable changes since 1989, when parliamentary democracy and a market economy were introduced after decades of active resistance to communism. However, Poland’s higher education system has lagged behind in the promotion of changes that match the rapid transformation of the economic and political systems. The question, then, is not whether higher education in Poland has been affected by the developments triggered in 1989-it definitely has-but why the changes in higher education have not been as substantial and rapid as those experienced in the political and economic systems and whether, and to what extent, they contributed to the development of Poland as an emerging market country. In an attempt to answer the question, I address the following topics:
• developments in higher education, both positive and negative, in the context of political and economic changes, characteristic of the systemic transformation that Poland began in 1989;
• the scope of changes within the higher education system; • the impact that higher education institutions have had upon society
with regard to “mind switching,” that is, promoting the reorientation of people from being passive and frustrated observers during communist times to active participants in a competitive, market driven, democratic system.
