Abstract:

One of the main goals of the reform of higher education in Poland is to reduce the distance in terms of internationalization that separates Polish universities from foreign universities. The signpost for universities is to be, among other recommendations included in the "Higher Education Internationalization Program" (hereinafter referred to as the Program) formulated in 2015 by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The main aim of the article is to diagnose the level of significance of selected aspects of internationalization of a university for students at Polish public economic universities. The subject of the research was the operational level of university internationalization, i.e., activities, programs and initiatives carried out as part of this process. The study analyzed 12 selected internationalization activities. Most of them coincided with the activities included in the Program. Additionally, aspects related to the integration of the academic community were assessed. In the months of November - December 2020, CAWI-type questionnaire surveys were carried out. The respondents were second-year students at public economic universities in Poland. Research has shown that students perceive the importance and the need to internationalize universities. The most important aspect of internationalization was the development of language competences of students and employees, and the least important - increasing the number of foreigners studying at Polish universities. Contrary to Western universities, Polish schools place less emphasis on the acculturation of students and guests from abroad, which may hinder the development of cultural competences of members of the academic community of Polish universities and building relational capital. The analysis of the activities of universities to date in the field of internationalization revealed the direction of involvement not fully consistent with the preferences of students. The relatively largest gap, i.e., the discrepancy between the assessment of the existence of activities accompanying internationalization and the positive assessment of the activities of the home university to date, concerned the increase in the number of foreign visiting professors coming from the world's leading universities. Although students see the importance of international exchange, research shows that they are not interested in exchange programs (they are characterized by a low level of knowledge about the programs). Additionally, most of the respondents are not planning to participate in the exchange. This is probably partly a consequence of the low level of knowledge about these programs, but also of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the related limitations (travel ban, distance learning, which made studying abroad less attractive).

Therefore, it seems advisable to carry out activities increasing students' awareness of the benefits of the broadly understood internationalization of universities, and in particular own activity in the field of building cultural competences during education at a university.

Keywords:

Internationalisation of higher education, university, student.