National (Polish) Reforms in Higher Education: Academic Freedom Under Question

The reform of higher education prepared over the years 2017-2018 is one of several parallel legislative offensives in Poland. Influencing less emotion outside the country than reforming the judiciary, it significantly reorganizes academic life and the possibility of conducting free research in Poland. The so-called. The Constitution for Science is pushed through by the government as a remedy for problems, and the long-term way of conducting social consultations was perceived, above all abroad, as a model one. The paper aims to report on the way the legislative change is being carried out and the basic political assumptions behind it presented as a neutral act regulating the whole of academic life. Representatives and advisers will be present during the presentation - including institutional and main beneficiaries of previous ministry's projects directed to the academic society. The introduced provisions will also allow the ministry to have a significant influence on the directions of development of Polish science. The main thesis of paper is that promoted as a neutral and ideology-free state called the Constitution for Science, is essentially a purely political project that may lead to a reduction of academic freedom. The defense of the thesis will be carried out by means of analysis of the content of the act and (or in this respect, first of all) executive acts (ordinances) issued by the minister. Moreover, the thesis will be based on the results of the analysis concerning the current beneficiaries of the minister's decision regarding the financing of ventures under projects directly admitted by him, not agencies such as the National Science Center or the National Center for Research and Development. In terms of general conclusions, paper refers to the role of the university in contemporary society and its influence on political games. In the presentation, we will seek an answer to the question whether universities can be ideologically neutral and whether reforms such as those pursued in Poland are a response to the involvement of the academic community in political life, or is an attempt to unjustified appropriation of another sphere of social life through politics.