Social Perceptions versus Economic Returns of the Higher Education: The Bologna Process in Poland

The Bologna process in Poland, as in Central Europe generally, was seen prior to the EU enlargement in 2004 as an effective avenue to integrate Polish universities with their Western European counterparts. Poland was among the initial signatory countries of the Bologna Declaration in 1999. In post-communist Europe, the Bologna process was often viewed as “a political option aiming at ingraining itself into European values” (Gorga 2007, 62, Tomusk 2006, Dobbins 2011). In the present study, the Bologna process is viewed through the lenses of the end product of reform initiatives it has been promoting in the last decade: in this case, a coherent system of three degrees – the bachelor, the master, and the doctorate. And in particular, it is focused on the changing social and labour market perceptions of the bachelor degree during the implementation of the Bologna process in Poland. Enhancing “employability”, following Teichler (2011, 4-5), is viewed here as an increasingly relevant “additional” objective of the Bologna process, its “core” objective being enhancing mobility. In Poland, throughout the 2000s, one of the main challenges to the implementation of the requirements of the Bologna process was the introduction of the three cycles of studies, and in particular – a clear separation of first and second degree studies. The master/bachelor split was present in Polish higher education already in the 1990s – but since its appearance, bachelor degrees had low social legitimacy and limited acceptance by the labour market as higher education credentials. The emergence of the bachelor degree