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Zbigniew Lucki

Faculty of Management, University of Mining and Metallurgy Cracow, Poland

INTERNATIONALIZATION IN INTERNATIONALIZATION IN DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT

STUDIESSTUDIESin the transition period from in the transition period from

communist to freecommunist to free--market economymarket economy

16th Australian International Education Conference 30 September - 4 October 2002, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia


2CONTENTSCONTENTS

• Development of higher education system in Poland

• Business studies as dominating education line

• Towards internationalisation

• Weaknesses of Polish higher education institutions

— scholasticism

— corruption

— ‘growth disease’

• Case study

• Comparison between Polish and West-European business schools

• Conclusions


3DEVELOPMENT OF DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER HIGHER EDUCATION EDUCATION SYSTEM IN SYSTEM IN POLANDPOLAND

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FIGURE 1

Year 1990/91 Year 1996/97Year 1981/82

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FIGURE 2

MAIN CHANGES

• de-politicisation

• strategy of cost management and earning money

• bigger demand

• outstanding graduates are elite of Polish society

• paying students appeared

• universities are more linked with Europe than other institutions


4

Schools Owned by Religious

Organizations 1.6%

State-OwnedSchools70.2%

Private Schools 28.2%

FIGURE 3

Part-TimeWeekend

50.6%

Extramural0.6%

Part-TimeEvening

5.0%

Full-Time43.8%

Figure 4

FIGURE 4

Academic year 1990/91 2000/01

Number of higher education institutions 112 3511

Number of students 403,800 1,584,800Students per 100,000 population 1,427 4,084Gross education ratio [%] 12.9 40.7Percentage of students paying 56.42

Number of graduates 56,100 261,100Number of teachers 64,500 79,900Students/teachers ratio 6.3 19.8

1/April 2002 2/23.0 in the OECD countries

2000/01

number of students

2000/01

number of students


5BUSINESS BUSINESS STUDIES AS STUDIES AS DOMINATING DOMINATING EDUCATION EDUCATION LINELINE

Other15.9%

InformationTechnology

2.8%

VocationalSchools

3.6%Law3.8%

Humanities7.0%

TeachersTraining

10.4%

Social Science13.9%

Engineering15.0%

BusinessAdministration

27.6%

FIGURE 5

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FIGURE 6 Law, Social Sciences Exact and Natural Sciences Humanities

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2000/01

1980/81 late 90.


6• communist period: very low demand for economists, financiers, bankers, marketers, managers etc.

• to make a carrier one should graduate in engineering

• in the nineties, new job places were created in banking, commerce, services and newly emerged private enterprises

• new private business schools are founded in large number every year, enrolling all people who did not find place in public schools

• there are 109 business schools and faculties and about 450,000 business and management students

• the business studies prevail in different types of higher education institutions: classic universities, polytechnics, academies of economics and decidedly in private schools

• management studies are offered also in agricultural schools andacademies of physical education

• more than 60% of management students pay tuition fee which amounts to above US $1,000 per year in expensive schools and to US $300-600 per year in the cheapest ones


7TOWARDS INTERNATIONALISATIONTOWARDS INTERNATIONALISATION

Five stages in the internationalisation of higher education institutions

StageNo.

Stage Characteristics

0 Marginal activity: few movers, internationalization as exotic phenomenon,foreign languages is taught.

1 Student mobility: awareness of the need to internationalize, commitment toplanning and implementing programs, ECTS becomes an important tool,creation of international office.

2 Curriculum and research internationalization: international coordinator,teacher mobility, and internationalization as a means to enhance the quality ofeducation.

3 Institutionalization of internationalization: strategy and structure, networking,partnerships and strategic alliances, quality of internationalization,multiculturalism, and international manager.

4 Commercializing the outcomes of internationalization: exporting andfranchising education services, joint ventures, strategic alliances, promotingthe commercialization.

(Söderqvist M. , EAIE Forum, Spring 2000, Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 10)


8Internationalisation initiatives in Polish universities

Licensed MBA studies and courses

• 34 schools

• fee US $5,000-10,000 or more

No. Initiatives1 New studies in international relations and European law, e. g. in global economics,

international law, international business, global management, EU institutions,euromarketing, etc.

2 Introduction of European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).3 Accreditation of Polish studies by international institutions like International

Education Society (IES), European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS),CERTQUA, ISO 9001, etc.

4 Many possibilities to study abroad offered by international institutions TEMPUS, LEONARDO DA VINCI, JEAN MONET, NATO andSOCRATES/ERASMUS programs. At present, the most popular isSOCRATES/ERASMUS program, which enables Polish students to study in 150European universities.

5 Individual initiatives of many countries Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland,France, Germany (DAAD and Humbolt), Holland, Japan, Sweden, UK, USA(Fulbright), etc.

6 Bilateral agreements with foreign universities on exchange of teachers, students,double diplomas and mutual recognition of ECTS points.


9SCHOLASTICISMSCHOLASTICISM• no links between theoretical knowledge and practical skills• small emphasis on psychological features required by employers

• students go to school to get a diploma rather than to get knowledge and skills

• no awareness among students that they should invest in their future careers

• curricula are oriented on learning facts, numbers, formulae by heart rather than on understanding and solving problems• students are not eager for success, rather try to avoid effort• employers do invest money in training young personnel

AN INITIATIVE TO CHANGE THE SCHOOLS— school teaches well all the pupils— school assesses fairly — school teaches to think and to understand the world— school develops socially and teaches sensitivity— school creates self-confidence and good atmosphere— school prepares for the future


10Polish system of managers’ education is poorly designed and not controlled properly by the state.

1. Full-time studies for 19 years old graduates of secondary schools

What is the sense of teaching business ethics or HRM a very young person who never has been in a company, has no experience in teamwork etc?

2. Part-time studies for people working and having business experience

Higher education institutions begun — in pursuit of financial profit — to enrol all people who did not pass the examination for free-of-charge full-time studies and were ready to pay tuition fee.

In effect, the part-time studies are a lower quality version of full-time studies (very young people, no experience and low motivation to learn).

3. Courses for managers

High politicisation of Polish companies caused the managers’ knowledge and skills to become of secondary or even tertiary importance.

The economic stagnation causes the companies to think seldom about education of managers.

So the problem is not how to satisfy the education needs of managers but how to trigger off these needs.


11CORRUPTIONCORRUPTION• peculiar culture allowing cheating in all kinds of tests and examinations (use of new technologies)

• bribery to make the students to pass difficult examinations

• cribbing of final undergraduate and postgraduate theses

• FEW PEOPLE CONDEMN THE CORRUPTION IN EDUCATION

• school morality standards are in continuous erosion from the both sides — authorities and students

Poland on about 40th place in the world as regards level of corruption in business and social life

• ex-empire (fallen nation)

• 150 years under occupation

• serfdom up to middle 19th

• destruction of links in the society during II World War; millions people moved to new provinces

• communism period created homo sovieticus with special ‘morality’ (idiot’s economy, corruption is necessary to get living means, truth cannot be told, cheating is more profitable than hard work)

•catholic: rich is bad, destination decides what will be


12‘GROWTH DISEASE’In the period 1990-2000, number of schools increased by 177%, number of students by 292%, gross education ratio by 216%, number of graduates by 365%, while number of teachers only by 24%

Weaknesses of state-owned universities:• very low salaries; high frustration of young teachers

• multi-position employment; highly detrimental to research and education quality

• poor infrastructure• lack of money for special equipment

No. Weaknesses1

2

3

45

Few own teaching personnel, private schools employ mainly teachersworking at the same time in public schools; professors work mostly inmore than one private school.No academic tradition and atmosphere, especially in small towns (which inPoland are very provincial).No contacts between professionals representing different sciences to createsynergism.No research activity and automatically lower level of teaching.Higher dimension of scholasticism and corruption.

Weaknesses of private business schools


13It is most urgent that the education quality control should be

established in the country

Lastly, an initiative to create the National Accreditation Committee has been undertaken

CASE STUDYCASE STUDY

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PART-TIME

Faculty of Management University of Mining and

Metallurgy, Cracow

Main weaknesses in 1989

• vague idea how the curriculum and syllabi of business faculty should be

• no experienced teachers of many ‘new’ subjects, like marketing,banking, human resources management etc.

• no textbooks and other teaching materials for many subjects

• shortage of money to buy modern teaching equipment, like computers, overhead projectors, copying machines etc.


14Two types of difficulties existed in the early nineties as concerned the teaching matter:

1. Problem of awareness. In four old Faculty curricula, the crucial management subjects appeared in a scarce volume if at all. For example, subject Marketing has appeared only in the third curriculum in a volume of 45 hours while subject HRM existed as Psychology and Sociology of Work in a volume of 60 hours.

2. Problem of understanding. There are many publications underlining the importance of cultural differences between the west and east and concluding that the problem for western European trainers, educators and managers working to assist eastern Europe make the transition to market economy is less a matter of knowledge transfer, and more a difficulty of meaning transfer.

Jankowicz has compared English and Polish meaning of five key business words — manager, to manage, marketing, accounting, training — and has come to the conclusion that the western side has grossly underestimated the difficulties involved in the creation of shared understanding.

As for „management”, the Polish range of connotations is narrower than it is in English,and limited to the more authoritative aspects of governance, commanding and directing.It lacks the English overtones of „coping”, „achieving with limited resources”,„persuading into consent”, „organising” which make the notion of alternativemanagement styles a possibility, making for a subtly different understanding of whatmanagement involves

Journal of East-West Business,2001, 7, 2, 37-59


15It was the European Community and American institutions to help us to change the image of the Faculty:

• Sabre Foundation and Kosciuszko Foundation (books)

• Commission of the European Communities (about one million US dollars within TEMPUS/PHARE Program)

• Teesside University (Middlesbrough, UK), British Council, Fulbright Scholarship, Murray State University (Kentucky, USA)

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS RUN BY THE fACULTY

No. Years Name and kind of the projects1 1990

2000TEMPUS updating curriculum and teaching methods andmaterials, exchange of teachers and students (see next table).

2 2000 SOCRATES/ERASMUS exchange of students with UK,Netherlands, France, Germany, Finland, Italy.

3 2000 PISCES (Project for International Students CollaborationExchange and Support) improvement of students creativityand communication skills.

3 1998 Foreign Lecturers for Faculty about dozen of lecturers areinvited every year to teach chosen subjects in English.

4 2001 Polish-French School of Management postgraduate MBAstudies.

Stage 3 of internationalisation; highly influenced the elite of full-time students


16List of TEMPUS projects granted to UMM Faculty of Management byEuropean Commission

No. Year Durationyears

Name and goal of the project Partnercountries

1 1990 5 Cracow Regional Consortium Project updating curriculum, teaching methods andmaterials, exchange of teachers.

UKNetherlands

2 1992 1 Cracow Regional Management StudentsProject exchange of students: 5-monthstaying abroad including practical placementto prepare a master thesis.

UKFrance

3 1994 3 Education Improvement of CracowManagement Students exchange ofstudents: 5-month staying abroad includingpractical placement to prepare a masterthesis.

UKFranceGermany

4 1995 3 A New Curriculum in Industrial andManagement Engineering developmentof new curriculum linking management andengineering courses.

FranceGermanyGreece

5 1997 3 European Community Company Law forManagement Students updatingcurriculum, teaching methods and materials,publishing textbooks, exchange of students:5-month staying abroad including practicalplacement to prepare a master thesis.

UKFranceGermanyItaly


17

Three periods of Faculty development in the nineties

No.

Years Name ofperiod

Features of period

1 19911994

Soundgrowth

• many candidates for one place• good contact with students• new curricula and syllabi• increase in quality of teaching (new methods,

new equipment)• enthusiasm and proud• domination of students interested in studying

2 19951998

Stabilization • decrease in the number of candidates for oneplace

• stabilization of quality• teaching staff involved in industrial

consultation (gaining managerial experience)• prevalence of average students

3 19992001

Morbidgrowth

• difficulty in getting candidates• teaching staff involved in other business

schools• prevalence of poor students• symptoms of corruption• conflicts, dejection

Weaknesses

• participation in pursuit of high incomes

• enrolling thousands of poor part-time students

• mass of poor students dominated the Faculty impressing strongly the atmosphere, opinion of Faculty, feelings of teachers, level of teaching etc.


18COMPARISON BETWEEN POLISH AND COMPARISON BETWEEN POLISH AND WESTWEST--EUROPEAN BUSINESS SCHOOLSEUROPEAN BUSINESS SCHOOLSAchievements of European business schools in the period 1960-1990 (Rameau, 1992) as confronted with the period 1989-2002

in Poland

No. Successes of European businessschools in 30 years

Assessment of Polish business schoolsfor 13 years

1 Creating institutions with very limitedresources

Great success

2 Creating a small professional facultyfrom scratch

Great success

3 Listening to customers (mainlyindividuals in 60’s and 70’s,corporations in 80’s)

Limited:• no competition between schools,• Polish enterprises are mostly in the

first phase of restructurization and arenot deeply interested in quality ofmanagers

4 Offering a diversity of educationalresponses at undergraduate,postgraduate, executive levels

Limited curricula controlled byNational Higher Education Board

5 Developing a diverse and sometimesinnovative set of pedagogicalapproaches

Diversified, but average level is ratherlow (different types of corruption)


19

6 Encouraging entrepreneurial activities More oriented towards financial successthan towards quality

7 Being relatively flexible in adjustingresponses to changing needs (becauseof small size young faculty and non-precise mission)

Limited:• early 90’s: great suction of graduates

by industries,• late 90’s: population boom in business

schools8 Developing awareness in national,

then the European market formanagement education

No national culture and mission tocreate high quality managementeducation system

9 Creating a minimum level of research Limited teaching staff overburdened10 Developing a relatively satisfactory

(sometimes very good) interface withcustomers, especially corporations (inthe 80’s)

Limited, no cultural background,corporations in hands of politicians

11 Integrating an international dimension(being the ‘raison d’être’ for some)

Many initiatives, in leading schoolsinternational dimension often moredistinct than nation-wide

12 Offering a valid (and sometimesquality) alternative to the US offeringin education

Both models West-European andAmerican are followed by leadingschools

13 Creating a nucleus of professionalorganizations at the national orEuropean level

Individual participation of leadingschools


20CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS• Polish management education system has been created from scratch with the substantial support of international community.

• In total, there is a ‘wild capitalism’ in the Polish managers’ higher education system and the state does control neither the volume nor the quality of the market. The state-owned and private schools scented a good business in this field and thousands of young people are cheated every year.

• Polish authorities do not care properly what will happen with next generations (typical thinking: ‘they will manage as new capitalist word is their inherent environment’) and no proper actions are taken to prepare young generations to the situation on labour market.

• On the other hand, ‘homo sovieticus’ attitude and belief that it is the state responsible for their welfare hinder the inter-nationalisation of the young generations. Also other bad attitudes typical for the system of idiot’s economy, like passivity, helplessness etc., are deeply ingrained and inherited from generation to generation.


21• There will be hundreds thousand victims after entrance of Poland to EU when graduates of Polish business schools will have to compete against their colleagues from other countries.

• It is very possible that the market of business education will start to shrink in the nearest future (change of preference of young people, demographic valley) and the worst schools will bankrupt.

• Notwithstanding the presented weaknesses of the system, the most talented, eager, entrepreneurial or rich students have very favourable conditions to make an international career, mainly due to support from EU and other countries.

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