Jak i po co kształcimy socjologów?
How are we teaching sociologists and what for?

Summary/Abstract: The paper considers the question of the status of teaching/studying sociology at Polish universities. The basic data were derived from two sources. They come partly from the Ministry of Higher Education (a number of public and private universities offering sociology as a field of study, numbers of students and graduates and so on). And another source of data is the author’s empirical research which includes: analysis of websites, interviews with students, lecturers, deans, visiting professors, and Erasmus beneficiaries. The study refers to the similar one made ten years ago. Comparison of both makes it possible to notice: (1) growing interest in studying sociology in Poland and increasing expansion of private universities (and vocational colleges) in this field; (2) strong students’ pressure on making sociological studies more pragmatic; (3) wide space for necessary changes and corrections; (4) confusion among managers responsible for the process of academic teaching (mostly due to the new regulations of the Bologna system); (5) good opinion about the academic level of Polish sociology but poor quality of academic teaching, badly organized process of studying and too formal relationships between students and lecturers. Ambiguity of a professional profile of the sociologist can be – paradoxically – its strong side in postmodern society which needs specialists able to understand increasingly complex social relationships in every area. There is one condition, however, sociological studies should be complemented with other ones.

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