“The good, the bad and the ugly.” The expert presents three possible scenarios for the development of science in Poland

Universities that do not change may be at risk of forced mergers or liquidation in the future, said prof. Dominik Antonowicz from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He added that the golden age of university financing is now behind us.

The conference “The Role of Innovation in Shaping the Future of Higher Education” was held at the University of Warsaw on Thursday. The event was co-organized by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Still not enough funds for education

– This year, funds allocated to support higher education and research are lower compared to last year. (…) That is why an institution such as the European Investment Bank is necessary and helpful, because we can learn (from it – PAP's note) how to manage, how to obtain a loan, how to support our institutions and how to prepare a program for repaying this money – said the Rector of the University of Warsaw, Prof. Alojzy Nowak during the opening of the conference.

Director of the EIB Public Sector Lending Department, Gilles Badot, emphasized that the education sector is very important for the European Union. – It makes the European common market even more competitive in the long term (…). Education and training therefore remain one of the most effective tools supporting human development, social integration and competitiveness, he argued.

Ph.D. Dominik Antonowicz, head of the Department of Research on Science and Higher Education at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) in Toruń, university professor, presented the prospects for the development of higher education for the next decades. He spoke, among others: about how the community of people studying at universities will change (there will be more and more older people) and the form of education (from five-year master's studies and 3+2-year models towards increasingly shorter, modular blocks). He reminded that Universities are already struggling with the phenomenon of drop-out, i.e. resignation from studies.

He paid attention to decline in the importance of diplomas – in his opinion, more and more people may not be interested in obtaining them. Hence, according to prof. Antonowicz, a new role of universities may emerge as institutions certifying knowledge and skills acquired in other places – for example, workplaces.

He estimated that in the near future, due to increasingly tighter borders and restrictions for foreigners, European, including Polish, universities will bethe number of students from outside the EU was decreasing. This will significantly affect the budget of universities, e.g. medical schools, which often admit foreigners for paid studies.

Will universities enter into alliances?

According to a sociologist One solution may be to create European alliances of universities. – Searching for strategic partnerships is a step ahead of what is happening in visa policy. But universities that have recruitment problems can also look for stronger partners from whom they can learn, explained Prof. Antonovich.

In his opinion, the forms and scope of higher education and the methods of subsidizing it will also change under the influence of students' expectations or under the pressure of commercial entities. Financing universities from public funds will change from “budgetary” to “subject-specific”, i.e. specific amounts will be allocated to specific initiatives, created with specific goals in mind – such as the current Excellence Initiative – Research University programs, International Research Agendas or the Regional Excellence Initiative.

The researcher added: – It is difficult to expect, looking at European trends, that unconditional funding for universities will increase. I think we are past the golden age of university funding in Europe, and this is causing some structural tensions and challenges.

Three scenarios

He presented three possible scenarios for the development of the higher education and science sector: “the good, the bad and the ugly”. The first assumes that universities will be able to change from the bottom up and convince the government that they will adapt, among others. to new social and economic expectations. In the second, bad variant, university financing will remain at a stable but low level, and higher education units will struggle with a constant lack of funds, unable to attract talents and cope with subsequent crises.

In the “ugly”, or worst, future, there will be alternatives to traditional universities – institutions that will attract students more effectively, educate them better and conduct more interesting research. This will lead to forced mergers of higher education units or their liquidation.

– Universities that do not change (…) may become victims of this trend – summed up prof. Dominik Antonowicz.

(PAP)

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