"Perspektywy” Education Foundation (Fundacja Edukacyjna „Perspektywy”- in Polish) is an independent, non-profit national organization established June 1st, 1998 to promote and support education. The Board of Foundation consists of present and former rectors of Polish universities and other outstanding public figures interested in the development of higher education in Poland.
“Perspektywy” Education Foundation plays an important role on the domestic scene actively promoting quality of education. It organizes public debates and seminars on education, organizes in all 18 academic centers in Poland information campaigns for high school seniors and students on higher education opportunities attracting each year over 200 000 young participants.
For over a decade the “Perspektywy” organizes and publishes national universities ranking, and ranking of the best secondary schools in the country that are recognized as the most popular and reliable educational rankings in Poland.
Projects promoting participation of women in the STEM education is the main specialization of the Perspektywy Education Foundation ("Girls as Engineers” and “Girls go Science!” Campaigns, "Lean in STEM" program). The Foundation together with the global company Siemens conduct survey „Women’s potential for the technological industry. Choice of educational path, expectations, aspirations and market reality ”.
The international activities of the “Perspektywy” Foundation concentrate around promotion of Polish higher education internationally. In this respect “Perspektywy” collaborates closely with the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (CRASP). In 2005 both sides initiated a multi-year programme of promotion of Polish universities abroad called Study in Poland (www.studyinpoland.pl ), and in June 2007 signed a formal agreement thus underlining the importance of internationalization of Polish higher education.
“Perspektywy” Foundation acted as a National Coordinating Structure for the European Higher Education Fairs (EHEF) programme and in this capacity organized presence of over 50 Polish higher education institutions at the Asia Link Symposia and EHEF fairs in India, China and several other countries in South East Asia.
“Perspektywy” Foundation runs the Secretariat of the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence, an international association has established by universities and ranking organizations from USA, Europe and Asia (www.ireg-observatory.org ).
The Foundation regularly publishes and distributes electronically to all higher education institutions in Poland a Newsletter, providing information on higher education in other countries and on the process of internationalization.
“Perspektywy” provides expertise and does research projects for the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Together with the CHE Centre for Higher Education Development (Germany) “Perspektywy” won a tender to develop a concept of a system of monitoring and ranking of tangible and non-tangible resources of the higher education in Poland.
Perspektywy” has been engaged in various international research projects. One of such projects is a Lifelong Learning Programme project: Indicators for Mapping and Profiling Internationalisation (IMPI) – being developed by CHE Consult (Germany), ACA (Belgium), CampusFrance (France), Nuffic (The Netherlands), SIU (Norway) and “Perspektywy”. The IMPI project “will lead to a considerable improvement in accountability and transparency of internationalisation and through new tools an improvement process on internationality will help to enhance the competitiveness of European HEIS”. www.impi-project.eu.
The “Perspektywy” Foundation is a member of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) www.aca-secretariat.be and a member of the Institute of International Education (IIE).