Prerequisites for Obtaining Scientific Degrees and Titles in Poland and Cooperation with the Socio-Economic Environment

Academic degrees and titles play a vital role in the way the higher education and science sector operates in Poland. However, at a time when cooperation between the academia and the socio-economic environment plays such a pivotal role, it is critical to assess whether the prerequisites for granting degrees and titles provide incentives to such cooperation, or whether research careers outside of the traditional academic realm (e.g. in companies) make them as appealing (in term of obtaining degrees) as those pursued at universities or research institutes. The purpose of the article is to determine whether the prerequisites for obtaining degrees and titles in Poland are conducive to the development of cooperation between the academic sector and the socio-economic environment. The paper further investigates whether such prerequisites make scientific work conducted in cooperation with the environment or even outside the academic sector as valuable from the point of view of the possibility of obtaining degrees and titles, or whether, on the contrary, they serve the purposes of the academic sector only. The study utilized the dogmatic-legal analysis method. It established a correlation between the prerequisites for granting academic degrees and collaboration with the socio-economic environment in the Polish legal order. The study determined that although such a correlation exists, they vary with respect to different titles and degrees.