First published in 1998, this edited volume reflected on the role of universities and aimed to improve the preparation of social welfare professionals by the University of Warsaw for employment in the new market-oriented society that was being created in Poland after the end of ‘real socialism’ in 1989. Many of its articles were previously published in Polish and were published, revised and updated, in English for the first time in this collection. The contributors discuss two key issues. First, should universities worry about the employment of their graduates and the skills that are needed by the wider economy and society or just focus on transmitting advanced learning? Second, they considered the modernisation of the welfare state. The Polish experience, and the Western partners’ reaction to it, has proved an excellent case study for these issues.