Przyspieszona nauka konkurencji. Przewodnik dla zbłąkanych w gąszczu reformy

• Main Author: Piotr Szenajch
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences 2012-12-01
• Series: Studia Litteraria et Historica
• Subjects: education; science; educational system; reform; law; competition; career; capitalism; humanities
• Online Access: https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/slh/article/view/7

Crash course on competition. A guide for the lost in the tangle of reform The key resolutions of the reform of the Polish system of science and higher education entered into force in the academic year 2011/2012. This essay contains an in-depth reading of the key governmental documents and legal acts that introduced the reform. Additionally, it comprises a description of the intensive critical discussion on the reform that, unfortunately, started only when the legislative process was nearly finished. Drawing from this debate and developing its interpretations, the essay analyses key institutional solutions of the reform; its fundamental assumptions; its rhetoric and, generally, its discursive background. Such solutions as: moving towards a more competition-based system of public funding for institutions and individuals; intensification of supervision based on quantitatively measured achievement, or enforcing a multi-level integration of public universities with the local business sector do not address the most urgent problems of the underfinanced and insecure students, PhD candidates and academics. In their naively individualistic approach, the reformers ignore the reflection on the social reproduction or the collective and structural aspects of scientific fields. Their monolithic vision of science leads them to imposing requirements developed for natural and technical disciplines upon social sciences and humanities. Finally, what they present as objective expert knowledge grounding the reform can be interpreted as based on deeply conservative economical and ethical assumptions as well as detached from a comprehensive empirical diagnosis.