The necessity to maintain habilitation in Poland

Abstract

The author presents arguments for maintaining a two-degree system of academic qualification: doctorate and habilitation. In his view, the scientific level of doctoral dissertation in Poland has lowered significantly in recent years. This situation results from the fact that too many academic entities have the right to confer doctoral degree and from the fact that the requirements for the candidates are now less demanding. It is the author’s opinion, that the requirement for a habilitation thesis, stemming from the tradition of German university reformed by Wilhelm von Humboldt, as the second (higher) academic qualification ought to be maintained. This degree makes the scholar a fully-fledged academic. However, the procedure of obtaining habilitation should be changed. The author advocates conferring the qualification not by the home university of the candidate and appointing reviewers who also do not come from the candidate’s home university nor from the university carrying out the procedure of habilitation. The reviews ought to be based on the method of peer review, thus the and bibliometric indicators should be treated with caution — in line with the DORA declaration signed in San Francisco in 2012.