Initiatives of built environment education and the popularisation of architecture in Poland

Whilst Poland has remarkably valuable experience in promoting the idea of built environment education (BEE), there is an unfortunate and sizable deficiency with regard to the national coordination of architectural policy. The objective of this research was to investigate the extent to which these valuable educational activities influence social interest in architecture and whether they could have an impact upon students’ choice of university major. To this end, a survey of 215 current students of architecture in Poland was performed. The research outcome was very interesting. Inter alia, it revealed the fact that despite the substantive quality of several educational initiatives, their range was unfortunately very limited. The majority of interviewed architecture students stated that they did not know of any all-Polish architectural education programme and that during their obligatory education, they had not participated in any architectural workshops.