The arguments for the need to catch up with Western universities have been the main tenets of the reforms of the Polish Higher Education (HE) since 1989. This argument was reinforced by the conditionality of the EU accession, which coincided with the launch of the Bologna Process. The chapter highlights the main arguments in the debates on the HE reform and focuses on the actors who have introduced the ranking issue. While the idea of creating ‘flagship universities’ was very present during these debates, the approved legislative acts seek for a growing differentiation between HEI. The chapter argues that global rankings have had an indirect impact on the recent reforms. It shows that rankings have policy relevance insofar as they are used by experts as legitimizing references.