Do you want to study in Poland or come here as part of the Erasmus+ programme? Find out which universities and degrees are the most popular among Polish and international students.

It has lately been noted that the number of young Poles who select any type of tertiary education has decreased in recent years; it appears that being a university graduate is no longer required to have a chance at a lucrative profession. Nonetheless, high education in Poland remains extremely popular, and according to Eurostat, the country has one of Europe's largest student populations - with 1.6 million students in 2016, Poland ranked sixth in the European Union, trailing Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. Many high school graduates choose to pursue an academic career, which is made easier in Poland by the fact that full-time study at public universities are free. So, which universities do Poles attend?

According to a number of applications, the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education ranked the most popular universities in Poland last year:

1. University of Warsaw
2. Warsaw University of Technology
3. Jagiellonian University in Kraków
4. Gdańsk University of Technology

When it comes to the most popular fields of study, humanities seem to have given way to IT, engineering, or business majors in the last few years:

• information technology
• management
• psychology
• economics
• law
• accounting and finance
• automatics and robotics
• civil engineering
• pedagogy
• logistics

At the same time, faculties such as pharmaceutical engineering, data science and chemistry and forensic toxicology are the hardest to get into. Future students of these fields need to score better than 17 other candidates during the recruitment process.

International students

Polish universities are attracting a growing number of international students. In Poland now, there are over 72 000 international students, which is two times the number from just five years ago. The majority of them are from Ukraine and Belarus, although there has been a noteworthy increase in students from India and Scandinavian nations (Norway and Sweden). International relations, management, and accounting and finance are popular majors among foreign students at the University of Warsaw. Scandinavians are also well-represented in medical school applications.

Sources:

Eurostat

Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego

Uniwersytet Warszawski