The evolution of terminology within the tertiary education system in Poland : from a diachronic perspective

Pursuant to the Bologna Declaration of 1999, the establishment of the European Higher Education Area has entailed some standardization within the scope of terminology pertaining to tertiary education. Even though the process has left some room for country specific terminology, with names of higher education institutions being often used in their original wording, just to avoid lack of clarity, translation of the names in question is often performed for informative and for diploma recognition purposes. The aspect of translation seems not to pose a significant problem with regard to current names of tertiary education as there exist both strict and transparent rules defined by the Polish law with regard to the naming process as well as guidelines issued by the Council of Europe determining the standardization of higher education in the countries of the Bologna Process signatories. It may, however, cause some difficulties, in the case of translation of names used in the past. The main thrust hereof is to present the way the tertiary education system in Poland developed in terms of applied terminology of proper names of higher education institutions. The analyzed issue is mostly supposed to depict restrictions within the naming process and to suggest translation into English that conforms to the currently binding Polish law and that takes into consideration the then binding laws in Poland. The legislative ground subject to the analysis is constituted by Polish acts, resolutions, and official announcements, while the period covered encompasses the time span between WWII and the present moment. The suggested translation is understood as a transfer of culture and presentation of the education system, depicted from a diachronic perspective.