Independence, Academic Freedom and Autonomy. Models of Coordination of Higher Education - In the Margin of Clark Kerr’s Paper

Abstract

Referring to the paper by Clark Kerr in which he distinguishes four aspects of the university independence (property, control, financial sources and mechanisms), the author presents problems arising from looking on Polish system of higher education from the American theoretical perspective. The evolution from the medieval university, through the model of liberal university to the modern university shows a process of gradual arising of system differences between Polish and American institutions. The differences result in misinterpretation of terminology related to the  academic autonomy, independence and freedom. The differences between particular institutions, described by Kerr, can pertain to the whole systems. They are described by four theoretical models of coordination by B. Clark: beaurocratic, political, academic oligarchyand market instruments of their realization and the resulting situation of the universities are also presented. Different consequences of utilization in practice of coordination based on a dominating oligarchy and market model are presented on the example of transformations of the British system. The last section of the paper gives a critical analysis of the direction of transformations of the Polish system which result from new legal regulations and their interpretation, demonstrates its contradictions and lack of consequences as well as possibilities of more coherent solutions.