On the project of the University of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Among the scientific institutions in Poland, the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences possess top-ranking research potential. In the years 2013-2016, for instance, 19.7% of all research articles published in the most prestigious research journals for each particular field (the top 10% of the list of journals for each field, ranked by impact factor) by authors affiliated with Polish institutions came from the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences – this is far the best such percentage among all Polish academic institutions. The staff members at the PAS institutes are engaged not only in research, but also in teaching: as of 31 December 2016, there were 1607 individuals in regular PhD programs at the PAS institutes. Moreover, the degree of internationalization (8%) of these programs at the PAS institutes is the highest among all Polish higher-education institutions. These and other factors are seen as providing justification for the plan to pull together the potential of the PAS institutes in order to create a new higher-education institution, to be called the University of the Polish Academy of Sciences (UPAS), meant to become Poland’s first-ever research university. Plans call for UPAS to ultimately have a total of 2500 students studying in its programs, predominantly third-cycle (PhD-level) programs. Such a number will enable each student to be ensured individual supervision by top-notch researchers. It will also allow innovative teaching programs to be developed and tested in keeping with the new trends of the Internet era and e-learning, through online course offerings and through inter- and cross-disciplinary studies. Under this plan, UPAS stands a real chance of becoming a proud showpiece of Polish science and higher education: holding open, international competitions for various long-term positions as visiting professors, post-doc researchers, and PhD candidates will help further bolster the degree of internationalization among both the staff and students of UPAS, bringing it up to the level that characterizes the world’s best higher-education institutions. Given the size of Poland’s budget for science and higher education, attaining such a degree of internationalization in the near future will only be financially feasible for a university as small as UPAS. The above measures will also have a quality-boosting impact on the PAS institutes themselves, significantly improving their level. After several years, UPAS will stand a real chance of attaining very good standing in international rankings of the world’s higher education institutions, among the top 200 or even top 100 in the world. We should stress clearly: for this to happen, the funding for research at PAS institutes will need to be maintained on at least the same level as at present, the network of PAS institutes will need to be made more flexible, incorporating mechanisms generating significant synergy between the institutes (with UPAS as the common objective), and the project will need to be supported by a long-term program of internationalization of staff and students.