Tourism tertiary education and research in Poland

Abstract

The very long tradition of tourism education and research in Poland cannot be described easily due to different political systems during the last 70 years. This paper is organized as follows: first, a short historical background of higher education in a political and economic context is given. Second, it illuminates the important changes in education in Poland. The universities with the highest number of students in this field are presented and discussed. In Poland it is possible to choose tourism as a specialization in other study fields. Tertiary education institutions do not have to provide information to the central institution regarding their offers of specialization, which complicates the attempt to show the whole spectrum of tertiary education. The tourism units are situated not only in different departments, but also in diverse faculties. A short overview of possible organizational aspects is also given. Subsequently, the main research areas are analysed. Because the problem of tourism research comprises a broad range of research fields, it is hard to depict the most relevant research fields and to identify the main sources that should be investigated. This paper does not pretend to show all problems and subjects connected with tourism education and research phenomena, but rather attempts to highlight the complexity and limitations in identifying the most important issues of the complete system.