New Entrants to the Polish Academe: Empirical Findings in the Light of Major Theories of Research Productivity

Abstract

Polish academics under 40 exhibit different academic behaviors and academic attitudes than their older colleagues: they work differently and they think differently about the nature of their work. Much less research-oriented and spend fewer hours on research than in Western Europe. Such a sharp Western European intergenerational divide in academic time investments and research orientation is not observable in Poland. While in Western Europe, research productivity increases hugely with age, in Poland there is only very limited increase of productivity between younger and older generations. All Polish academics spend much more time on teaching and much less time on research. Their average productivity is low from a European comparative perspective (even though Polish research top performers are not different. – High teaching hours for young academics in Poland may effectively cut them off from research achievements comparable to those of young academics in major Western European systems. Their high teaching involvement effectively reduces the number of hours left for research.