Doctoral candidates – chosen ones or losers? Conclusions from a theoretical-empirical research on doctoral studies in Poland

Abstract

In the academic year 2015/2016, there were more than 40,000 people studying for a Ph.D. in Poland. Set against the scale known from before the education boom of the 1990s, the figure is staggering. The fact that so many young people (not all of them young, as there is no age limit on education opportunities on any level) wish to be ever better educated and work their way up the academic ladder, may well be seen as a positive development. However, if public debate on the matter is anything to go by, it would seem that there are more downsides than advantages to this state of affairs: the devaluation of Master’s degrees, the mass character of the education process and the absence of genuine master-disciple relationships are but few of the disadvantages. Does the university matter, does it inform students’ life choices? It seemed worthwhile to get to know the answers to these questions, using the circumstances of Ph.D. students, their financial status, and the economic, social and cultural capital at their disposal, as reference points. Asking these questions gave me a pretext and a reason to undertake research in Poland as well as the best universities in the world (Harvard University, University of Oxford, Peking University and others). The survey of doctoral students, carried out between 2010 and 2013, is part of a more extensive programme concerning the education of social elites worldwide and bringing about social change. The programme in question comprises a variety of comparative and cultural themes: the manner in which doctoral studies are structured and conducted, the master-disciple relationship (not least in its historical aspect), the quality of education offered, social structure and its determinants. The research cited in the text comes from my book Kształcenie elit społecznych? Studia doktoranckie w Polsce jako forma i potrzeba konstruowania zapoznanego mitu [The Shaping of Social Elites? Doctoral Studies in Poland as a Form of Constructing an Obsolete Myth, and Expressing the Need for such a Myth]. The book is a complete report that covers many more problems and questions about doctoral studies’ system in Poland.