Legal Criteria for Awarding the Title of Professor in the Field of Art – Normative and Empirical Analysis

Abstract

The Act on Higher Education and Science of 2018 brought, inter alia, a change in the statutory conditions for obtaining the title of professor in the field of art. Premises for such obtaining have been significantly limited. However, with this change, the corresponding documentation requirements, currently established by the administrative
body (the Council of Scientific Excellence) conducting promotion proceedings, were not adopted. Also, the majority of reviews in these proceedings do not respect the new regulations, sticking to the old rules that are maintained in the aforementioned formal regulation. Administrative courts are also reluctant to force the above-mentioned Council to adjust its practice to the new legal status, and in particular to critically verify the review (including in terms of the reliable performance of contracts in question). Therefore, this situation requires correction, and first on the part of the Council itself, but of reviewers and courts as well. Its continuation significantly blocks new professorships of Polish artists. This study demonstrates such a need for correction.