Factors impeding and boosting universities in their efforts to improve the quality of the provided services

Higher education in Poland has been, for a few years, in the course of permanent but slow and rather ineffective reform of the management system aiming at adapting universities-both public and private ones–to the requirements of the European Union on the one hand, and on the other hand to the international and domestic labour market. The aim of this paper is to present agents which block and boost universities in their efforts to improve the quality of their services and thus enhance their position in Europe as well as to adjust the development strategy and the quality of management in these universities, in the context of the proposed amendment to the law on higher education. The realization of this objective will be assisted by a research hypothesis proclaiming that the law on higher education and its proposed amendment determines the improvement of quality management as well as the improvement of the quality of research and educational services at universities. The realization of the mission and goals of the university requires the continuous improvement of quality management in universities because in this way the authorities acccelerate the development of university and make it more competitive on the education market. It is appropriate to implement and develop such a system of quality management in universities which will generate the continuous improvement of quality management, thus allowing for self-financing of university development