The Internationalization of the Polish Academic Profession. A European Comparative Approach (CPP RPS 80/2014)

The need for more intense internationalization of Polish higher education was one of the major themes in a recent (2008-2012) wave of reforms. In particular, two aspects were focal points in recent policy debates: internationally visible publications as part of “internationalization at home”, and international research cooperation as part of “internationalization abroad”, to refer to Jane Knight’s (2012: 34-37) two “pillars of internationalization”. In this paper, we shall use a micro-level (individual) approach which relies on primary academic attitudinal and behavioral data voluntarily provided by academics in a consistent, internationally comparable format, with only some references to macro-level secondary data (available from national and international statistics). The individual academic is the unit of analysis, rather than national higher education systems or individual institutions. A new “data-rich” research environment in the international comparative academic profession studies allows for the first time to analyze the internationalization of Polish academics in a comparative quantitative European context