CHANGES TO THE CONCEPTION OF GEOGRAPHY CURRICULA WITHIN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN POLAND IN THE 21ST CENTURY IN THE FACE OF LABOUR MARKET CHALLENGES∗

Abstract

In the nineties of the 20th century, there was a rapid growth in the number of applicants for
Polish universities. Unfortunately, this favourable situation didn’t cause any structural or
curriculum changes. Traditional geography curriculum remained obsolete and not adapted to
the challenging Polish labour market. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the situation
has started to change mainly due to the baby boom, which has caused a general fall in the
number of people who want to study. This fact compelled academic authorities to think over
the concept of geographic education and to conduct reforms. Another factor that forced
changes was the obligation to implement the Bologna Declaration after Poland entered the
EU in 2004.
This paper presents the analysis of the evolution of the conception of geography in higher
education in years 2002-2012, as well as it assesses both positive and negative aspects of the
current geography academic education programmes in Poland, taking into consideration the
improvement in the quality of education, fair measurement and assessment of this quality and
analysis of labour market needs with reference to the future graduates of geography studies.
In order to achieve the objective of this study, the method of document analysis has been
used. The analysis includes geography education standards and curricula from all universities
that provide geography education. Moreover, the study includes diagnostic surveys conducted
among students on the change of their level of satisfaction from the geography studies and
specialities that they have chosen at the end of studies and approx. half a year after
completion of studies, i.e. during their transition to the labour market.