– My views result not only from what I know as a long-time observer and participant in this process, but also from objective data that the ministry presents in Excel spreadsheets available to everyone. We learn from them how the market valued the knowledge and competences of graduates of individual universities. This data is collected for 5 years after graduation, which is important because while the market valuation in the first year after graduation may be a valuation of the university’s prestige, in the fifth year it is already a real valuation of competences. This cannot be disputed – emphasizes the professor.
He points out that in basic fields such as economics, finance, accounting, some graduates can be valued by the market several times lower, i.e. earn up to three times less than their colleagues from leading universities focused on economic sciences, such as the Warsaw School of Economics. What is worrying is that the enormous differentiation and the fact that some graduates are close to junk wages is also visible in strategic fields such as cybersecurity or AI development, where competences in the field of computer science and econometrics are necessary. Few graduates have them at a really appropriate level. This is not due to the prestige of the university, but the quality of education and the phenomenon that the professor calls education by osmosis, i.e. students absorbing knowledge from a large number of academic teachers with high competences and reputation, as well as through immersion in a specific culture of education (e.g. it is not without significance that books on economics dominate in the libraries of economic universities, while at polytechnics or classical universities, for example, the scope of books’ topics is necessarily different).
We also talk with the professor about, among other things:
- The lamentable effects of the lack of economic education of Polish women and men from kindergarten and primary school
- Decreased level of knowledge and competences of candidates for studies after reforms of the education system
- The impact of demographics on education
- The demand to restore university entrance exams
We cordially encourage you to watch and listen to this extremely interesting conversation.
