Quality Assurance in Doctoral Education in Poland: Regulations and Perceptions

The new Act on Higher Education and Science in Poland, adopted in 2018, not only introduced a new organisation of doctoral education in the form of doctoral schools, but also established new requirements, including the obligation to implement both external and internal quality assurance (QA) systems. This represents a key change, as doctoral education had not previously been fully covered by quality assurance mechanisms. The relatively short period during which doctoral programmes were included in the institutional accreditation of university departments conducted by the Polish Accreditation Committee is difficult to assess as effective or adequate for this level of education, as the evaluation at that time focused primarily on first- and second-cycle programmes. In their presentation, the authors will present the results of pilot studies on the quality of doctoral education in the context of the 2018 reform. The pilot study includs an analysis of quality assurance solutions implemented in selected higher education and research institutions, as well as qualitative research conducted with representatives of these institutions.