Voice in the debate “The young in science”

Abstract

We identify the main problems that scientists (especially young ones) face in their academic carreer in Poland: lack of diversification of positions, underdeveloped system of motivations, restrictions on mobility and unmericotratic policies. We present data supporting our diagnosis, and put forward a few recommendations meant to improve the research performance of academic institutions in Poland. (1) The job market should be more objective and more meritocratic, (2) purely teaching positions, properly appreciated, should be assigned to good teachers, not simply bad researchers, (3) academics with PhD degrees should be allowed to supervise PhD students, (4) Top 10% researchers should be in the focus of the institutions, also when it comes to lowering the teaching load, facilitating mobility, (5) the teaching load of young academics is much too high, and (6) too many students are accepted, because various funding-related issues still depend too much on the number of students.