Gość: matt nero
IP: *.chello.pl
15.01.04, 22:38
NATURE 15 January 2004
Current issue: Vol 427 No 6971 p. 196
--------------------------------------------------
Eastern Europe: progress stifled by the old guard
--------------------------------------------------
Sir — Your Editorial “Eastern promise”
(Nature 426, 369; 2003) argued that
integrating several eastern European
countries into the European Union (EU)
might boost European science owing to
their untapped human potential. You
suggest that integration will be a shortterm
challenge for the EU, but will
ultimately strengthen it.
As a scientist from Poland — one of
the EU members-to-be — who has worked
both in Western Europe and now in the
United States, I must strongly disagree
with your conclusion.
It is true that there is great human
potential in eastern Europe. However, you
seriously underestimate the power of the
scientific establishment in those countries
— ranks of professors promoted during
communist times — to hinder progress.
Educated, hard-working scientists flee
whenever possible, either by abandoning
science altogether or by emigrating, usually
to the United States, because the job
market is tough in the EU. Few are brave
enough to fight to work in their homeland.
The only way to unleash any hidden
human potential is by drastic reform of
science and higher education in countries
such as Poland. Sadly, there are no signs of
change on the horizon.Western scientists
rarely understand how science works in
the east. In Poland it is hierarchical,
immobile, hermetic and gerontocratic.
Recognition comes from having a
professorship, and the postdoctorate
qualification called habilitation, not from
publications in internationally recognized
journals with high impact factors. A
scientific career after PhD and habilitation
depends on personal and political
connections. Future professors require a
certain number of publications, so they
publish worthless papers in countless
Polish ‘scientific’ journals.
Once they have been promoted, the
professors are no longer required to do
any real research. Their titles are bestowed
for life, and a head of department keeps
that position until retirement. Professors
usually work in the university where they
completed their undergraduate, graduate
and PhD studies, where everybody knows
everybody else. Outsiders are rare and
nepotism is common. Entire generations
gain professorships because they are
relatives or favourites of previous
professors.Most research money is
distributed by arbitrary administrative
decisions, not as peer-reviewed grants.
Polish universities are ruled by
democratic elections, but the scientific
establishment is not interested in change.
Some professors are creating the illusion of
reform under the auspices of the president
of Poland — but it is difficult to expect
them to undermine their own existence.
Integrating eastern European science
into the EU will do more harm than good
unless the EU enforces real reforms in
those countries. To thrive, science in
eastern Europe must become part of the
international scientific community: the
habilitations and titular professorships
must be abolished, scientific merit must
be the only measure of an individual’s
qualifications, and money for research
must be distributed by a competition
among peer-reviewed applications.
I fear that Europe lacks the political will
to modernize science. Even within the EU,
anachronisms in several countries make
their science less competitive than that of
the United States.
One day I would like to work again in
Europe, especially in Poland. But as it is
now, the heart of science beats on the other
side of the Atlantic.
Cezary Wójcik
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,
Department of Physiology, 5323 Harry Hines
Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75390-9040, USA
