2018 EUNIS Elite Award
for excellence in implementing Information
Systems for Higher Education winner
It is the broadest repository of data on Polish science and higher education. The repository is composed of nearly 40 modules. In terms of the scope of the data collected it is the largest working public information system.
The key areas of the System’s application are as follows:
ELA is a nationwide system for monitoring the economic situation of graduates of higher education institutions (HEIs). The system uses data on graduates from POL-on system and data from the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). ELA system is publicly accessible.
01The Nationwide Repository of Diploma Dissertations written by graduates of higher education institutions gathers full versions of diploma dissertations defended on Polish universities and HEIs. Only authorised entities can access the Repository.
02
An official public register of academic degrees and titles granted in Poland.
The register is publicly accessible.
This portal is devoted to innovation and constitutes a platform for scientists, industry and business. It offers access to comprehensive and reliable information on innovations, projects, entrepreneurs and scientific institutions as well as subject-matter experts and conferences.
04The largest collection of public data registers open for public use (based on the Central Repository of Public Sector Information).
05The Repository contains information on Polish and foreign academic journals as well as publications by Polish scholars.
06Wybierz Studia is a source of information on the educational offer of HEIs. It also contains statistical data on student enrolment and other useful data to facilitate the selection of a matching study programme.
07Full support for the electronic elections of members of the Central Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles.
08Electronic support for the process of granting subsidies and grants for R&D projects (through different financing streams); support in organising the process of calls for proposals and in the implementation / monitoring of all types of projects.
09Finance reporting by HEIs, annual reports on activities implemented by HEIs, enrolment surveys, institution surveys and many other electronic document forms to be filed by scientific institutions and HEIs.
10Information on state accreditations for particular study programmes, granted by the State Accreditation Committee. In the publicly available datasets there is also information on the didactic capacity, the institution’s R&D infrastructure and academic staff.
11Data within the system which are used as the basis for statistical calculations presented to Statistics Poland and Eurostat. It is accessible for authorised users, after logging in.
12Evaluation of scientific institutions in compliance with the assessment criteria imposed by the relevant regulation from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
13POL-on is the most comprehensive archive of data on science and higher education gathered in one country. It is a unified system that collects data from a broad range of fields on an ongoing basis. The data gathered span a broad spectrum, from data on artistic activity, architecture and scientific publications, undergraduate and postgraduate courses, data on the situation of graduates, data on dissertations to the entire research and scientific infrastructure, grants and investments.
A very important feature of the system is its e-reporting (or remote reporting) functionality for higher education institutions and scientific institutes. The functionality is meant to relieve the bureaucratic burden on the institutions. POL-on has taken over many reporting duties which universities used to be responsible for, including financial reporting, annual reporting performed by rectors, enrolment surveys and, most of all, statistics forms submitted to Statistics Poland. Ultimately, some of the reporting duties are to be eliminated altogether after the introduction of the new act on higher education (the so-called 2.0 Act) – as the data will be available on an ongoing basis in the system and the relevant supervisory bodies will be able to access the data directly.
We already have advanced plans to evaluate the situation of secondary school graduates after the new act on education. Our objective is to facilitate a verification of the popularity of study programmes based on the actual choices of secondary schools students, thanks to the data from POL-on. In particular, we want to look at the choices made by the best students who take part in nationwide contests in particular subjects.
We are also planning to broaden the system’s accessibility and the availability of its data. Both the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and our team at the Information Processing Institute wish for the majority of the data to be publicly available for researchers, the interested people, and the society at large. That is why we have launched the implementation of Stage 2 of our ZSUN project. One of the goals of the project is to ensure that POL-on’s data is made available in a user-friendly way, through the application of new technologies.
Our aim is also to automate the data input processes through the use of modern network communication interfaces (API REST), algorithmic analysis and through predictive analysis with big data.
The System is composed of nearly 40 modules. It was launched on October 2011.
since 2011
since 2013
since 2013
The System has been developed and maintained by the National Information Processing Institute (OPI PIB) whose tasks include, among others: gathering and providing access to up-to-date information on Polish science, implementing research on the activities of scientific institutions, HEIs, and technology transfer organisations. The Institute develops comprehensive IT systems which support the development of Polish science and higher education institutions.
