Changes of associations with the university as an employer - opinions of potential young polish employees

The article has the theoretical-empirical character. The problems related to the meaning of connotations with an university as an employer among potential employees were presented. In the theoretical part the method of the cognitive-critical analysis of the world literature on image management, marketing and human resources management was applied. On the base of the results of this analysis the key role of the potential employees' connotations with the employer in the process of image creation was underlined. There are not considerations in this scope connected with an university as an employer in the literature. So, one can state that two gaps (cognitive and research) exist. That's why in the article the following aims were to be gained: identifying young potential employees' connotations with an university as an employer, defining the changes of these connotations, grouping identified connotations etc. To prepare the empirical part the method of questionnaire research (to gather primary data) and the methods of quantitative analysis (including average rating analysis and comparative analysis) were applied. The results showed that respondents' connotations with an university as an employer were worst in 2018 in the comparison to 2016 year. It's reflected in the growth of values of five average ratings in the case of negative connotations as well as in the decrease of values of some average ratings in the case of positive ones.