The 2011-2012 academic year - summary

In the 2011/2012 academic year there were 1,764.1 thousand students in higher education institutions, i.e. by 4.2% less than in the previous academic year. It was the fifth successive year when a decline in the number of students was recorded, which was influenced by demographic changes (year by year the population aged 19-24 has been decreasing).

71.3% of all higher schools were non-public. However, public schools recorded higher number of students -70.6% of all students. Women accounted for 58.7% of all students.

Economy and administration, social sciences as well as teacher training and education science were most often chosen subgroups among the fields of education.
The number of foreign students in Polish higher schools has been increasing. In the 2011/2012 academic year their number amounted to 24.3 thousand, i.e. 1.4% of all students.

The most numerous were students from Europe - 18.3 thous. persons in total, majority of whom came from Ukraine, Belarus, Norway.
In 2011 there were 749.5 thousand students learning modern foreign languages in obligatory courses (i.e. 43.1% of all students - excluding foreigners). Their number fell by 7.2% in comparison with the previous year.

91.8% of students learning foreign languages attended only one foreign language course. Students learning one foreign language accounted for 39.6% of the students’ population. Much smaller percentage of students learned two foreign languages (3.5%) or more (0.1% of students were taught three or more languages within their course of studies).
The number of graduates in the 2010/2011 academic year amounted to 497.5 thous. and was higher by nearly 18.6 thous. (i.e. by 3.9%) in comparison with the 2009/2010 academic year.

The number of students of post-graduate studies in the 2011/2012 academic year increased by 4.2 thous. in relation to the previous year and amounted to 189.6 thousand. In comparison with the 2005/2006 academic year there were 53.7 thous. more post-graduate students (39.5%) which also represents more than a tripled number of attendees in 1995. Female students constituted 70.3% of all post-graduate students.
In the 2011/2012 academic year the number of students attending Ph.D. studies conducted by tertiary education institutions, such as research institutes, scientific units of Polish Academy of Sciences and the Medical Centre of Post-graduate Education amounted to 40.3 thous., 2.8 thous. more than a year before.

In higher schools, as of December 2011 there were 102.8 thous. of academic teachers employed (counted as full-time equivalent), of which 1,836 were foreigners. There were 17.2 students per one academic teacher (slightly less than the year before).


source: Central Statistical Office, Higher Education Institutions and their Finances in 2011