According to the new education system teachers are promoted through successive grading of professional qualifications: from trainee teacher, contract teacher, to appointed teacher, and diploma-holding teacher. The highest level is professor of education, awarded only to the very best tutors.

The reforms of the educational system reached the higher music education institutions as well. There are three types of higher music education institutions in Poland: Academies of Music; Music Education Faculties at Higher Teacher Education Schools (Higher Pedagogical Schools) and at the Universities. The Academies of Music are dedicated to teaching the following subjects of studies: composition, theory of music, conducting, instrumental play, singing, jazz and pop music, eurhythmics, church music, sound engineering, and music education. There are eight Music Academies in Poland. They take place in the biggest cities of Poland: Warszawa, Katowice, Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Lodz, Bydgoszcz. Although the Matura examination in Poland replaced entrance examinations to the Universities (introduced in 2005), the candidates to higher music institutions are obliged to take an additional competitive entrance examination.

The higher education system in Poland comprises both state and non-state institutions (created on the basis of the Higher Education Act, 1990), but all Music Academies in Poland are state owned. Most higher education institutions are under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. However, some as Academies of Music, Fine Arts, Theatre, and Film Studies are under the supervision of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

On the 19^th June 1999 in Bologna, the European ministers in charge of Higher Education signed a Declaration (so called Bologna-Declaration) with the intention to create a “European Higher Education Area”. Professional music training, which has gradually been integrated into the national higher education systems during the past decades, is also strongly influenced by these developments. The Bologna Process has initiated important changes in higher education system in Europe, including Poland. The Declaration was signed to increase the mobility of students, teachers and professionals and create greater transparency in European higher education. Nowadays, professional degrees at higher music institutions in Poland are regulated by the Bologna-Declaration indications. The graduates of institutions of higher music education receive the following degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and PhD.