Market Intelligence Brief - Poland 2019-20

Poland's education system has made incredible progress since major reform projects began in 1999. In the 2000 PISA study, Poland ranked well below the OECD average, yet in 2018, Poland had progressed dramatically to rank in the top five overall. High rates of education access across income groups and regions have resulted in impressive equality in economic growth. With strong technical and vocational education and training from the secondary level, there is near-universal enrolment of 15- to 19-year-olds in education.

With rising incomes and improved local provision at the primary and secondary level, Polish students have increasingly been looking abroad for tertiary education. The UK has by far benefitted the most from this trend. In 2018/19, there were 8,845 Polish students at UK HEIs. While the overall number of Polish students in the UK is still below the peak of just under 10,000 in 2008/09, the 2018/19 academic year marked the fourth consecutive year of growth as numbers rebound. Poland however faces a demographics crisis and the youth population is projected to decline, accompanied by lower numbers of students enrolling in tertiary study.