The Centre for Science Policy and Higher Education at University of Warsaw was singled out by the Ministry of National Education - as the Polish co-ordinating institution - to investigate a subject whose realization will lead to the formulation of alternative Solutions to the problem of quality evaluation in Polish higher education and the organizational structures in which this process would take place. The following attempt to formulate the terms of reference for establishment of an institution responsible for quality of higher education at the national level is the result of realization of a project which received an ECATEMPUS grant for the 1994/95 academic year. Realization of the project was based on various materials and forms of data collection. The starting point taken was an analysis of the condition of higher education and legislation passed in Poland after 1989 - acts, resolutions and documents determining the internal operating procedures of higher education institutions. The basic source of information about higher education institutions in questions not regulated in the Higher Education Act consisted of statutes as well as other documents - rules and regulations of studies, ordinances, resolutions, etc. An important source of information were meetings, seminars and national and foreign conferences devoted to various aspects of quality assurance at the institution or faculty levels. Two seminars also constituted successive stages of the project completion. Questionnaire surveys were made of institutions under the Ministry of National Education, medical schools and non-state higher education institutions in an attempt to determine the degree of involvement of Polish higher education institutions in the self- -assessment. In addition, the results of questionnaire surveys carried out in 1993 by the Centre for Science Policy and Higher Education on a representative sample of academic teachers were used in the description of the situation in Polish higher education institutions. The studies concerned the adaptation strategies in place in Polish higher education institutions. The project was realized in co-operation with representatives of the Polish academic community and with experts - realizers and authors of higher education quality assessment systems in France, the Netherlands and Great Britain (England and Scotland).
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