Poland - Introduction

Tertiary education currently includes the following types of programmes:

• college programmes(ISCED 5B), provided by public and non-public teacher training colleges, foreign language teacher training collegesand colleges of social work, which last 3 years and are classified as tertiary education for international comparisons, but are not recognised as higher education in the national legislation;
• degree programmes(ISCED 5A), provided by both public and non-public university-type and non-university higher education institutionswhich comply with relevant requirements, including:
• first-cycle (Bachelor’s degree) programmes which last 3 to 4 years and lead to the degree of licencjat or 3.5 to 4 years and lead to the degree of inżynier, depending on the field of study;
• second-cycle (Master’s degree) programmes which last 1.5 to 2 years and lead to the degree of magister or an equivalent degree, depending on the field of study;
• long-cycle (Master’s degree) programmes which last between 4.5 and 6 years and lead to the same degree of magister or the same equivalent degree as second-cycle programmes; however, no new long-cycle programmes may be launched in most of the existing fields of study as of the academic year 2007/08;
• third-cycle or doctoral programmes(ISCED 6) which last 3 to 4 years and are provided by: units of university-type higher education institutionsauthorised to confer either the post-doctoral academic degree of doktor habilitowany or the academic degree of doktor in at least two different disciplines of a given area of science; and research institutionsother than higher education institutions (units of the Polish Academy of Sciences and research and development institutions) authorised to confer the post-doctoral academic degree of doktor habilitowany.

Moreover, higher education institutions and research institutions offer non-degree postgraduate programmes (ISCED 5A), open to holders of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, which last 1.5 to 2 years. However, these programmes are considered a part of continuing or adult education.

Institutions:

Ministry of Science and Higher Education
ul. Wspólna 1/3 00-529 Warszawa 53
Tel. +48 (22)-529-27-18
Website: http://www.mnisw.gov.pl

Ministry of National Education
00-918 Warszawa, Al. Szucha 25
Tel. +48 (22) 628 69 53
Fax:+48 (22) 628 69 53
Website: http://www.men.gov.pl

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