Doktoranci w szczelinach akademickości

The subject of the article concerns the situation of doctoral students trained in the context of an institutionalized system of higher education. The academic ethos has been offered for sale, and has become another educational service used for different interests. The metaphor of “gaps” that I introduce in the article describes well the unprivileged position of the young people entering the world of science. I try to identify the “gaps” and the “tensions” disintegrating the existing order, in which the traditional ethos of commitments is eroded by the new system of claims. The university tied up with formal regulations creates a new environment where everything: the role of mentors, the relationships, and the position of doctoral students change signifcantly. I choose hermeneutic to analyze the framework education programs, and to try to answer the question: What goals are implemented and what effects of the training of doctoral students emerge from the interpretation of the source material? I refer also to qualitative data (interviews with university students) which shows the evolution of the youth’s attitudes to their own role and place in the world of scholars.