How can one encourage the development of professional skills in a university subject? How can one use a blog to improve teaching results? These questions motivated the study presented in this article. It is structured around the following two basic and complementary objectives: 1. Designing and implementing a teaching innovation project to promote the development of certain professional skills, using the blog as a tool for self-reflection and 2. Evaluating the experience and collecting students’ comments on the use of the blog in a university context. In pursuit of the second objective, we used a methodology that combined a questionnaire and content analysis. The results make us reflect on the changes that should be introduced in the design of the learning activities and the provision of feedback to utilise the blog as a tool to promote the development of professional skills.

The article is a summary of one part of the research conducted in the Department of Didactics and Media in Education, regarding the use of tablets in the teaching process. The paper provides an overview of the frequency of use, as well as ways of using the tools by students of the humanities. It presents the relationship between the presence of tablets in the teaching process and the cognitive-constructivist nature of acting. The presented study was carried out among 396 students of the humanities. The study used diagnostic survey methods, as well as the pedagogical crossover experiment.

Faced with increased competition, business schools seem to have realized that having the strongest brands, hence, a distinct image, is vital to strengthening their presence in the education market. It is in this context that the presented paper focuses on assessing the dimensions of brand equity of business schools from the MBA-enrolled student’s perspective, with a specific reference to the Peruvian market. In this regard, it builds an instrument around five dimensions of brand equity, namely, brand loyalty, brand association, brand awareness, perceived quality, and overall brand perception. Additionally, it furnishes a snapshot of the Peruvian business schools sector by means of providing the order of dimensions pertaining to each business school. The analysis suggests that perceived quality seems to be the most important dimension of brand equity, while the overall brand perception is almost always ranked last. Conceptualizing brand equity from the MBA-enrolled student’s perspective can prove to be useful as this framework could assist business schools in designing marketing strategies to improve their brand equity and gain a higher student share.

This paper presents preliminary evaluation of the programme of, so called, ordered specializations. This programme in recent years has made a significant impact on the higher education system in Poland. The evaluation was made from an economic perspective considering the effectiveness of the programme. Due to lack of appropriate data it is too early for the comprehensive evaluation of the programme. Its effects will become visible in long-run perspective. In the article we use quantitative data from the surveys conducted for the purpose of the project evaluation (surveys with students, graduates, employers and representatives of Higher Education Institutions). The analysis shows that, although the programme has brought the effect of increasing the enrolment in selected fields of study, it did not necessarily lead to the achievement of labour market goals. In the context of the huge expenditure for the implementation of the programme (more than 1.2 billion PLN), the assessment of the economic efficiency of the programme is ambiguous. Conclusions of the evaluation of the programme are crucial in the context of the planned construction of similar actions in the future.

The purpose of this article is to characterize gamification as an increasingly popular contemporary method of teaching, which is part of the StudentCentered Learning trend. The SCL philosophy, which promotes studentcentered approach as the central issue of the learning process, indicates gamification as one of the most effective and the most interesting method of motivating students to be put in the effort in gaining knowledge and derive satisfaction from their achievements in the scientific field. As indicated by the authors, finding the motivation and maintaining it at an adequate level in the process of teaching, is not an easy task, and the problem posed by its absence is becoming more common in Polish and European higher education system. This evaluation is confirmed by the studies of the authors within domestic and foreign literature. The most common causes of amotivation, presented in the article, could be gradually solved just through gamification — teaching methodology, which uses the game mechanics. Gamification, based on the teaching through activating students, encouraging them to a self-activity, a creative rivalry and a cooperation, is nowadays increasingly used in an academic field, where the authors have found numerous interesting examples. The authors of the text are outlining the principles and advantages of using gamification, the potential areas of application as well as interesting projects with its use. They also postulate to change the current paradigm of teaching by replacing the often inefficient ‘feeding’ teaching methods of transmitting knowledge with more active form, wherein gamification is fully applicable.

This article covers the basic terms in educational sciences in English and their equivalents in Polish, including definitions, difficulties in the selection of appropriate equivalent and linguistic traps which may influence on how the particular term is interpreted in the context of a text it is contained within and both Polish and American/British educational reality. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of a Polish reader of education­related texts that have been translated from English in terms of issues concerning meanings and interpretation, to make the Polish authors of education­related texts more sensitive to such issues and to provide them with a basis to be used when they create their own works which are meant to be populated in the multilingual environment of educationists or when they refer to the English literature in educational sciences in Polish books and articles.

The paper concerns on advantages and disadvantages of survey researches used as tools in the process of evaluation of education quality in contemporary Poland. Education quality is usually surveyed by using questionnaires accessible in electronic internet form as a part of the USOS system. It is implied that survey, as a research method, is an effective means applicable to measure opinions, attitudes and expectations of the students. Moreover, the internet form of survey takes the most of advantages of the traditional forms of research, which makes it an efficient tool in the process of evaluation in the higher education. This way of research prevail at Polish universities.

The aim of this article is to present the possible relationship between the level of financing of R+D, the R+D personnel rate (particularly in the higher education sector) and the presence of Polish academic research in the world demonstrated by prestigious publications indexed in the Web of Science (WoS). The research findings concern the analysis of changes in time and show a clear, strong and positive correlation between the level of financing of research and development activity and the number of publications listed in the WoS. The received result indicates with a wellfitting regression model that there is a direct relationship between the expenditure on research and the presence of Polish scholars in the international science.

The article focuses on the changes in the field of higher education which have occurred during the period of systemic transformation in Poland; particularly on the influence of the regulations introduced in 2011. Following Cris Shore and Susan Wright the author argues that reforms are not only routine, bureaucratic practices but they have a profound impact on social life. In the light of this claim she suggests that the new law not only enforced structural adjustments in the academia but also triggered the process of reshaping the idea of university itself. This shift can be explained in terms of neoliberalisation (in the Foucauldian sense), as the process of transforming academia into the institution driven and dominated by the discourses of efficiency. In order to achieve that goal various tools developed for measuring academic and teaching performance, assessing research quality and institutional effectiveness were introduced. The author pays particular attention to practices of auditing, also defined as ‘rituals of verification’, which play a significant role in the process of producing accountable, selfdisciplined and calculative neoliberal subjects.

Przy użyciu nowych danych, w kontekście aktualnych tendencji, poddano analizie zjawisko umiędzynarodowienia szkolnictwa wyższego na Ukrainie pod kątem mobilności studentów i współpracy międzynarodowej, wskazując przede wszystkim na jego asymetrię. Polska, Niemcy i Rosja są priorytetowymi krajami dla ukraińskich studentów podejmujących studia wyższe za granicą (70% ukraińskich studentów uczy się w tych krajach). Polska stała się kluczową destynacją niedawno, a liczba studentów z Ukrainy gwałtownie wzrasta (ponad 33%). Największe grupy studentów zagranicznych na Ukrainie pochodzą z Azerbejdżanu, Turkmenistanu, Indii, Nigerii i Maroka (52%), podczas gdy jest tylko 8,1% studentów z krajów OECD, 2,9% z UE, 0,9% z G7 i prawie 14% z państw sąsiadujących. Gruzja zastąpiła Rosję wśród 10 głównych państw dostarczających studentów na Ukrainę. Całkowite poziomy eksportu i importu w szkolnictwie wyższym mierzone mobilnością studentów na Ukrainie są mniejsze w obu przypadkach niż 4/5%. Można również zauważyć zasadniczą dysproporcję w regionalizacji umiędzynarodowienia edukacji wyższej poprzez przypływ studentów na korzyść wschodnich i południowych części Ukrainy. Ogólny kontekst nauki języków obcych studentów międzynarodowych zmienił się ostatnio z dominacji rosyjskiego (57%) na dominację języka ukraińskiego (49%). Potwierdza się także wzrastająca tendencja do rozszerzania współpracy, w kontekście Europejskich Obszarów Szkolnictwa Wyższego i Badań, UE i państw partnerskich w obrębie programów Erasmus+ oraz Horizon 2020. Ostatnia modernizacja legislacyjna dotycząca szkolnictwa wyższego wzmacnia jego internacjonalizację na Ukrainie.

In the empirical study of intercultural exchange presented in this paper, we assessed Erasmus students for knowledge of English as a foreign language (EFL) and their level of reflective judgement, to test for correlation between the two variables. The basic theoretical framing was derived from King and Kitchener’s (1994) reflective judgment model (RJM), based on 3 different levels of reflectivity, connected to progressive cognitive development of adults: pre-reflective, quasireflective and reflective. The results of the study show that the students displayed high levels of reflective judgment and importantly, we found a correlation between their standard of English and their level of reflectivity. The ability to communicate in English is a prerequisite to participation in the Erasmus programme, therefore it was expected that the students would score well for English knowledge. However, the results of the study suggest that being competent in the use of English as a foreign language may be a predictor of higher reflectivity amongst students in higher education. This creates a controversial pedagogical implication suggesting that learning English as a foreign language to a high standard fuels reflectivity.

Changes in the quality of academic education in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

Through the first period of the coronavirus pandemic, and in the need to teach remotely the education system in Poland underwent the accelerated process of implementation of distance learning solutions. The task that universities set themselves in the era of the prevailing pandemic was to maintain the quality of education at the existing level, while ensuring the safety of students and lecturers. The main aim of the study is to illustrate the changes in the academic education process that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article highlights the specific features of distance learning, pointing to its positive and negative sides. To achieve the assumed goal, a query of domestic and foreign literature in the field of the presented research issues was used, as well as an analysis of secondary sources of information, mainly reports on remote education research during the pandemic. The analyzes show that the forced transfer of education to virtual platforms brought some benefits, but also resulted in a number of unfavorable changes. The educational experience so far during the pandemic has shown that the transfer of this form of verification of learning outcomes to cyberspace posed serious problems - not so much for students, but for teachers. Remote education offers hope for matching teaching techniques to the needs of students, as well as for forcing lecturers to improve the quality of their classes, also in terms of content. Distance learning techniques are therefore becoming an integral part of the education process. The issues discussed in the article may constitute a starting point for further in-depth research.

Distance learning of pedagogy students during the COVID-19 pandemic – empirical considerations

The article presents the results of research conducted in 2020 among students of pedagogy of the Institute of Education and Communication Research of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice (Poland) regarding the evaluation of the quality of remote education introduced in response to the situation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic and compared them with the results obtained by others native and foreign researchers, which made it possible to specify several conclusions for further work on the application of this form of education in academic education. The main method used in the research was a diagnostic survey with the technique assigned to it. The survey, taking into account the current situation of the university, resulting from distance learning during the pandemic, as well as other information disclosed by the media, consisted of two parts. The first part contained four questions (including those relating to demographic conditions). The second part consisted of questions focused on the research issues set out in this study, the main purpose of which was to learn about the opinions and views of students of pedagogy on compulsory distance education, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the research have brought a lot of new information, important for the extended analyzes and measurements of remote education conducted in many countries during the lockdown, which will allow, during possible subsequent epidemic threats, to exclude the diagnosed and identified problems that hinder the implementation of remote education of students.

The right to education is at the heart of the notion of cultural rights, established in basic laws and international treaties. Meanwhile, outside the official educational system, the phenomenon of tutoring is becoming an increasingly influential factor contributing to the deepening of inequalities in access to education. This article presents the results of research carried out using the survey method - auditorium questionnaire, on the total population of the first-year students of first-cycle programme and long-cycle Master’s programme at the University of Rzeszów. The aim of the article was to indicate the cultural and social factors that determine the use of private tutoring by the surveyed students. The University of Rzeszów is the largest public institution of higher education in south-eastern Poland. The research provided interesting conclusions for the discussion on the development of informal education in the form of additional paid lessons and their impact on the formal education system in Poland.

Coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) poses a significant challenge for the society. One of such social groups are academic teachers. The aim of this study is to become acquainted with the perceived difficulties of Polish academic teachers connected with the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess the importance of resilience in perceiving these difficulties. One hundred and one (n = 101) Polish academic teachers completed the Scale of Perceived Difficulties Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic SOTCov19 (NA) and the Resilience Assessment Scale SPP-25. The descriptive statistics, correlation analysis (Pearson’s correlations coefficient), and progressive stepwise regression analysis were used. The study shows that Polish academic teachers experience the greatest difficulties in three areas: recreational and cultural aspect, health and care aspects, and remote working - online lessons. A significant correlation between included variables was obtained. It is also well worth mentioning that the two subscales of resilience - tolerance for failure and treating life as a challenge, and personal competence to deal with and tolerance of negative emotions - entail a predictive function in explaining the perceived difficulties, however the percentage of variance is low, unlike expected.

Autorzy przedstawili kreatywność w nauczaniu i uczeniu się jako główną siłę napędową tworzenia wiedzy, awansu społecznego i gospodarczego. Ocenili opinie nauczycieli i studentów na temat praktyki kreatywnego nauczania w szkolnictwie wyższym w Rwandzie. Wszyscy respondenci podzielali wspólne poglądy na temat konieczności zwiększania kreatywności w szkolnictwie wyższym. W badaniu zasugerowano, że istnieje potrzeba dalszego doskonalenia różnych metod nauczania i uczenia się, aby skutecznie wdrażać kreatywność w nauczaniu i uczeniu się, co ma kluczowe znaczenie dla wykształcenia kompetentnych i wykwalifikowanych absolwentów, którzy mogą następnie pomóc w osiągnięciu krajowego celu, jakim jest zwiększenie innowacyjności.

Research on gamification shows that it has positive impacts on learning, performance, motivation, and engagement. To have a big picture on gamification research in higher education, a combination of bibliometric and thematic analysis was conducted. For this study, a total of 432 documents from 2010 to 2020 which have been indexed in Web of Science database are investigated. Additionally, the researchers analyzed a group of 10 articles to review how much contribution they had to the body of research. General tendencies in the way gamification has been changing or developing in academic literature were scrutinized from the perspective of a variety of different factors including the time the works were published; the areas of the research field; and the authors, organizations, countries, and co-authorship publishing the most number of works in the issue. The possible future applications and results for educational organizations and academicians, top academic decision-makers, and educationists are discussed.

This research investigated international undergraduate students’ needs when adjusting to their new campus, academic and social life. The results from a significant survey of international students provided us with an evidence base to understand the improved student experience this cohort may seek in what will likely be a competitive environment for attracting international students post-COVID-19. While this case study has focused on one faculty, our findings are relevant to higher education institutions across disciplines, domestically and internationally.

The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of instructors of internationalization in higher education. The sample of this study consists of 325 faculty members working at four different universities. The data were collected using a scale developed by the researchers. According to findings scale points of the female instructors are better than the male instructors in the foreign language and academic sub-scales. It is seen that perception level of the instructors who were stayed in a foreign country for their education are better than the ones who were not in the academic sub-scale. It is also observed that perceptions of instructors who went to a congress or symposium abroad are better than the ones who did not go to a congress and symposium abroad in the foreign language dimension.

The article analyses short-term student mobility. In the context of internationalisation of higher education and the development of the global market of educational services universities develop and implement short-term programmes of student mobility in order to recruit international students. These programmes are less restricted than full time programmes, which allows them to meet the needs and expectations of students. International experience gained as a result gives them the opportunity to choose their path in postgraduate education in institutions abroad. A questionnaire survey of the Chinese students participating in the short-term student mobility programmes (n=31) is reported. In addition, a number of interviews with the staffwhose work is connected with teaching overseas students (n=5) was conducted in 2019. The findings of this research may demonstrate that Chinese students intend to become familiar with an additional set of common cultural competences. In other words, their interest in Russia, its history, culture, traditions and customs is becoming a strong motivation in choosing a university and a short-term educational programme. It could be the case that low language proficiency, bureaucracy, (namely, difficulties in acquiring the necessary paperwork and being accommodated in a hall of residence) become hurdles on the way to completing such a programme successfully. While developing programmes, host universities should be guided by common cultural competences in order to promote further development of short-term student mobility.