Poland

I. A Brief Description of Polish Higher Education

            Polish higher education faces many changes and challenges as the country enters its second decade under a democratic government and a market economy. The fall of Communism brought many transformations to Poland’s higher education, including academic freedom, curricular reform, the development of more market-oriented curricula, and the emergence of a private sector of higher education. During the past decade, the enrollment in Poland’s institutions of higher education has grown from about 11 percent of the college age population to nearly 30 percent  (Strategic planning for Polish higher education, SPPHE Proposal). This growth has been accompanied by new academic programs, new faculty pay schemes, a new system of accreditation, and an expansion in facilities.

            On September 3, 1999, a revised higher education framework law was presented to the Executive Committee of the Conference of Rectors of Academic School in Poland (CRASP). Some of the most important new provisions were the following:

1.      The new Law on Higher Education consolidates what was previously contained in three separate acts: Act on Higher Education (1990), Act on Institutions of Higher Vocational Education (1997), and Act on Loan System for Students (1998).

2.      One minister now supervises all non-military higher education institutions. (Higher education had previously been under five different ministries: National Education, Culture and Arts, Health and Social Care, Transportation, and Physical Culture and Sports.)

3.      A new body, the Academic Accreditation Committee (AAC), has been established to set educational standards and assess the quality of education in all  institutions. In particular, the AAC reviews applications for the establishment and operation of new HE institutions and applications for launching new study programs at existing institutions.

4.      The right of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools to present initiatives and opinions concerning higher education is formally recognized. (Although the initiatives and opinions of the CRASP have been highly respected the state and governmental authorities, conferences of rectors have not been mentioned in the acts related to higher education.)

5.      Provisions allowing for limited tuition fees (discussed below).

In spite of these new provisions, the Government still exercises only limited control over the management of universities. Also, full-time students still receive some funding from the Polish Government. State funding is distributed to the Polish universities according to an algorithm that is closely related to enrolments. Internally, university administrators retain approximately 30 percent of their state grants for central system functions and distribute the remaining 70 percent to their various faculties for instructional and other costs, including the maintenance of facilities. In addition, most of the public universities earn approximately 25 percent of their total operating budgets from other external sources, including tuition from part-time and continuing education programs. External income is divided between the central administration and the relevant faculties at most universities by the same 30/70 basis. Under these circumstances, individual faculties and departments operate on one-line budgets and may carry forward savings from the current year to future years (<www.indiana.edu/~polishst/spphe/spphe_proposal.html>).

            Polish higher education, both state and non-state (private), includes the following sectors: universities, technical universities, agricultural schools, schools of economics, teacher education institutions, medical academies, maritime schools, academies of physical education, and schools of arts and theology. The greatest number of students is enrolled in the universities (354,500 in 1998/99), being followed by technical universities (270,000), schools of economics (272,000), teacher education schools (136,000), agricultural schools (85,000), medical academies (26,000), academies of physical education (20,000), schools of arts (11,000), and maritime schools (8,000). All other kinds of postsecondary schools account for about 56,000 students. Table 1 shows enrollments by field of specialization. .

Table 1:
Higher education Enrollments
by Specialization, All Sectors (in thousands)

Year	1990/91	1995/96	1998/99
Total	403.8	794.6	1,268.4
Educational studies	57.4	127.6	160.7
Arts	9.8	10.5	13.4
Humanities	46.4	76.5	101.3
Technological studies	9.3	14.3	20.6
Social studies	17.6	77.9	162.3
Business and mgmt.	53.5	139.7	335.2
Legal studies	19.0	47.3	56.6
Natural sciences	12.4	23.0	29.5
Mathematics and Computer science	9.7	15.0	24.0
Medical studies	40.7	32.6	33.2
Engineering	68.1	151.1	210.2
Architecture	4.3	6.4	9.3
Agriculture, forestry and fishery	28.9	28.7	40.0
Domestic studies	0.8	7.8	10.0
Transport and Communication	2.8	8.7	11.8
Media studies	4.1	4.9	6.7
Services	1.5	6.7	11.9
Other	17.5	15.9	22.2

Source: Concise Statistical Yearbook 1997, Central Statistical Office, Warsaw 1997; Higher schools and their finances in 1998, Central Statistical Office, Warsaw 1999

More and more students are choosing to study part time or weekends because they are able to work during weekdays, as shown in Table 2, below. The rapid increase in the number of students in the recent years can be correlated with a higher level of educational aspirations. The expansion and the differentiation of higher education—both vertically and horizontally—has led to a broadening of university offerings, an expansion of degrees such as the licentiate (BA), complementary MA studies, and post-graduate and doctorate studies, and the increase in part-time studies (http://www.andras.ee/issue/matlakiewicz.htm).

Table 2:
Student enrolments in higher education:

Year	Total	Day	Evening	Weekend	Extramural
1990/91	403,824	311,710	1,572	89,077	1,465
1999/2000	1,431,871	640,812	70,746	708,499	11,814

Source: http://free.polbox.pl/s/szajbot/tabela5.html

The radical changes in all Polish institutions brought about by the end of the so-called command economy has greatly affected the governance and management of the universities and other institutions of higher education. As in all of the countries of the former Soviet Union and the Socialist/Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, the changes involved both decentralization and devolution of authority from the central government to the institution and to its management. The rise of a market economy and commercialism brought about a new level of responsiveness both to the student and family, as well as to emerging business enterprises as consumers and users of higher education. In addition, the economic, political, and cultural reintegration of Poland with the rest of Europe, just at the time that all of European higher education was undergoing reforms in the direction of greater institutional autonomy, conformity of degrees, and more reliance on non-governmental revenues, has accelerated the changes in Polish higher education.

II. Costs of Higher Education in Poland Borne by Parents and Students

Although the underlying legal guarantee of free education legal continues to constrain Polish universities in the diversification of revenue through the imposition of tuition and fees, there are excerptions and loopholes. Under the 1999 Act on Higher Education, a tuition fee, not to exceed 10percent of an average monthly salary, was authorized to pay for the verification of knowledge, the certification of qualifications, and for some “extra services.” In addition, the revised Framework Law allowed State-owned higher education institutions, beginning in November 2000, to request tuition fees for selected study programs such as evening and extramural studies. In addition, of course, the new sector of private, tuition dependent higher education shifts higher educational costs in that sector to parents and students. Estimates of total costs borne by parents and students in both public and private sectors are shown in Table 3.

[National currency converted to $ US by 1999
Purchasing Power Parity $1= 1.84 Pl zloty];

		Public		Private
		Moderate Public	High Public		Low Private	High Private
	Application fee	0	0		300 (US163.04)	400 (US217.4)
	Tuition	0	6,800 [$3696]		3,500 [$1902]	8,000 [$4348]
	Books & Other Ed. Expenses	500 [$271]	500 [$271]		1,000 [$543]	2,000 [$1087]
	Subtotal Costs of Instruction	500 [$272]	7,300 [$3967]		4,800 [$2609]	10,400 [$5652]
	Lodging	2,500 (US 1,359)	3,000 (US 1,630)		2,000 (US 1,087)	3,000 [$1630]
	Food	4,500 [$2446]	6,000 [$3261]		5,000 [$2717]	6,000 [$3261]
	Transportation	300 [163]	300 [163]		500 [$272]	500 [$272]
	Other Personal Expenses	800 [$434]	950 [$516]		1,000 [$543]	1,000 [$543]
	Subtotal Cost of student living	8,100 [$4402]	10,250 [$5571]		8,500 [$4619]	10,500 [$5706]
Total		8,600 [$4674]	17,550 [$9538]		13,300 [$7228]	20,900 [$11,359]

Moderate Public: living in dormitory or shared apartment.
High public: paying tuition fee for extramural, part-time and evening studies, living as an “independent adult.”
Low Private: low private tuition, and living at home with parents.
High Private: high private tuition, living in dormitory or shared apartment.

References:

Strategic planning for Polish higher education, SPPHE Proposal, <www.indiana.edu/~polishst/spphe/spphe_proposal.html>

<www.indiana.edu/~polishst/spphe/spphe_proposal.html>

<www.krasp.org.pl/ang/oct299.html>

<www.eurydice.org/Eurybase/>

Concise Statistical Yearbook 1997

Central Statistical Office, Warsaw 1997

Higher schools and their finances in 1998, Central Statistical Office, Warsaw 1999

<http://www.ceebd.co.uk/ceeed/un/po/po011.htm>

<http://specials.ft.com/ln/ftsurveys/country/sc23182.htm>

<http://www.warsawvoice.pl/v487/Busi06.html>

<http://fetc.aekrakow.pl/cracow/crainfo.htm>

<http://www.european.de/english/info_centarl/polandeducation.htm.

<http://www.cc-review.org/00/17/polandnews17.html>

<http://fue.polbox.pl/s/szajbot/edukacja.html>

<http://www.andras.ee/issue/matlakiewicz.htm>

 

GF, DBJ 12/01