Reflections on the accreditation process in Polish technical universities

In recent years, significant changes have taken place in the Polish higher education system that refer mainly to the growing market of educational services and the quality of education associated with it. A completely new situation has emerged on the Polish education market. The huge expansion of the higher education system in Poland was not accompanied by an adequate concern over the proper quality of education. There was also a lack of proper reaction to the changing needs of the labour market. As a consequence, there are new educational requirements. Work has been undertaken to create durable mechanisms of creating and measuring the quality of education at higher education schools, as well as introducing accreditation procedures. The aims and the framework of the two types of accreditation at Polish technical universities, as well as the first experiences in the accreditation processes gathered in 2002 and 2003, both generally in Poland and specifically at Silesian University of Technology (SUT), Gliwice, Poland, are presented and discussed in the paper.