The 2012-2013 academic year - summary

In the 2012/2013 academic year there were 1,676.9 thousand students in higher education institutions, i.e. by 4.9% less than in the previous academic year. It was the sixth 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).

70.9% of all higher schools were non-public. However, public schools recorded higher number of students -72.6% 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 2012/2013 academic year their number amounted to 29.2 thousand, i.e. 1.7% of all students.

The most numerous were students from Europe - 23.0 thous. persons in total, majority of whom came from Ukraine, Belarus.
In 2012 there were 719.1 thousand students learning modern foreign languages in obligatory courses (i.e. 43.6% of all students - excluding foreigners). Their number fell by 4.1% in comparison with the previous year.

91.4% of students learning foreign languages attended only one foreign language course. Students learning one foreign language accounted for 39.9% of the students' population. Much smaller percentage of students learned two foreign languages (3.7%) or more (0.1% of students were taught three or more languages within their course of studies).

The number of graduates in the 2011/2012 academic year amounted to 485.2 thous. and was lower by nearly 12.3 thous. (i.e. by 2.5%) in comparison with the 2010/2011 academic year.

The number of students of post-graduate studies in the 2012/2013 academic year decreased by 17.0 thous. in relation to the previous year and amounted to 172.7 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 2012/2013 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 42.3 thous., 2.0 thous. more than a year before.

In higher schools, as of December 2012 there were 100.7 thous. of academic teachers employed (counted as full-time equivalent), of which 2,010 were foreigners. There were 16.6 students per one academic teacher (slightly less than the year before).


source: Central Statistical Office, Higher Education Institutions and their Finances in 2012