The increasingly important and urgent issue of the generation gap in the education of IT workers was the subject of the panel discussion hosted by the Lodz ICT Cluster in cooperation with Łódź University of Technology and the University of Lodz.
During the event, which was held in the Senate Hall of Lodz University of Technology, the Rector of the host institution, prof. Krzysztof Jóźwik, presented data on the salaries of academic teachers engaged in the training of IT specialists and contrasted them with salaries in IT companies. The disparities in pay are enormous, with salaries ranging from 3000 for entry-level positions to over 20,000 for professors and IT experts in business. The Rector pointed out that
'the university is the locus of natural, human, intelligence, yet soon there may be a shortage of qualified individuals to teach artificial intelligence'.
The discussion, facilitated by dr Dominika Kaczorowska-Spychalska, Director of the Centre for Intelligent Technologies at the University of Lodz, included the following panelists: prof. Andrzej Romanowski, Vice-Rector for Education at Łódź University of Technology; Grzegorz Trzciński, Technology Business Development & Site Manager at Eviden GDC in Łódź (Chair of the Steering Committee of the Lodz ICT Cluster); and Marek Walczak, Program Manager at HARMAN Connected Services (Chair of the Education Workgroup of the Lodz ICT Cluster).
Representatives of dozens of companies from the łódzkie region attended the discussion and listened in on the key reasons underlying the generation gap, including the general appeal of university careers. University and corporate jobs alike offer a range of advantages: participation in challenging projects, international travel and networking. What is not attractive, however, are the rather uncompetitive, one could say irrationally low (!) compared to industry, salaries for researchers, which doubtless is a factor in a dramatic drop in the number of new academic teachers.
The implications of this situation will soon become apparent: a shortage of academic staff will result in a reduction in the number of IT graduates who are currently vital to the economy. The generation gap in ICT specializations ought to be treated as a form of a demographic time bomb with a delayed fuse.
The general conclusion arising from the debate is the need for increased funding for education in Poland to bridge the generation gap and avoid negative selection into teaching professions. Reducing the disparity in the pay level for IT professionals' employed by universities and by companies is imperative if the exodus from the academia to the general business sector is to be contained.
Ideas on how to solve the problem
The panel discussion preceded a heated discussion in which representatives of companies and Łódź higher education institutions took the floor. Systemic proposals to remedy the situation were discussed, e.g., redirecting a small portion of CIT taxes levied on IT companies or a portion of PIT taxes levied on IT workers in the voivodeship/city area directly to universities based in that area.
Another option could be to allocate to the universities a portion of the tax IT professionals pay on the income from copyright and related rights.
What also emerged was the idea of a Solidarity Payment for universities - not unlike the FIFA solidarity contribution mechanism. In the FIFA system, the club that trained the player until the age of 23 is reimbursed for the cost of the player's training up to that point.
Immediate but temporary interventions of localized reach were also discussed. Listed among the feasible solutions were, for example, recruitment of professionals working in business to teach, e.g. IT project courses, or summoning local governments to provide incentives for researchers by renting them housing from the city's housing stock at preferential rates.
Another relevant issue was that of how livable is Łódź perceived to be. Also debated were the possibilities of closer cooperation between Łódź business and HEIs, both in terms of projects as well as education. What resounded throughout the discussion was that the proposed actions to support universities/university staff should be regarded as an investment without which the current national model of economic development is soon bound to collapse: IT companies, faced with a shortage of qualified staff, will move their operations outside Poland.