The law on the new National Agency for Academic Exchange was recently passed by the Council of Ministers. The new Agency will start its activities on 1 October 2017. It has been created in order to facilitate the internationalisation of Polish higher education and promote Polish science abroad. Mainly, it will be responsible for developing and implementing the tools of governmental financial support of international outbound and inbound exchange programs between academic institutions. Those tools will include scholarships and grants, providing opportunities for the Polish-based students & researchers to go abroad and incentives for foreign specialists to work in Poland – including a special grant programme inviting Polish expatriates to return. The programmes will be designed for every stage of one’s scientific career – from undergraduate students to professors.

“I hope that thanks to this institution we will be able to bring many promising young scientists, who work at the universities all over the world, back to Poland”, said Jarosław Gowin, the Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education. Another major function of the Agency will be to promote the Polish education system and Polish language abroad. Among other things, it will deal with the issue of international recognition of Polish education. This welcome development promises to become a new significant tool of student and researchers mobility, and, given the long-standing appreciation of UK education among the Polish students, has every chance to increase the number of Polish students travelling to UK for education.