Some 1.28 million students were enrolled in higher education institutions in Poland in the 2024/25 academic year, a 2.8% increase compared to the previous year, according to new data from Statistics Poland.
The data indicates the continuation of an upward trend that commenced in 2020/21, after several years of decline – between the 2015/16 academic year and that of 2019/20, student numbers fell from 1.4 million to 1.2 million.
Some 292,000 graduates received diplomas in the 2023/24 academic year, a slight decline (-134) on the previous year. However this is well down on 2015/16, when the number of graduates totalled 364,600.
Full-time students
Out of all students in higher education in Poland in 2024/25, close to two thirds (62.8%) were enrolled in full-time programmes. Some 803,600 students were enrolled in full-time programmes while 476,500 studied part time.
The most popular broad field of study was business, administration, and law, which accounted for 22.6% of enrolled students, while 14.2% were enrolled in social sciences, journalism, and information programmes.
Elsewhere, 14% of students were enrolled in health and welfare-related courses, and 12.3% in engineering, manufacturing, and construction.
Women accounted for close to two thirds (58.2%) of all students in Poland during the 2024/25 academic year.
In terms of geographical spread, Mazowieckie voivodship was home to the largest student population, with 288,048 students, including 35,069 foreign students. Małopolskie (152,012), Wielkopolskie (134,175) and Dolnośląskie (124,986) also had a large student population.
Foreign students
Overall, Poland had 108,609 foreign students in the 2024/25 academic year, Statistics Poland‘s data showed.
Among foreign graduates, who totalled 18,900 in 2023/24, the largest share came from Ukraine (36.0%) and Belarus (12.5%). The most common field for foreign graduates was business, administration, and law (32.2%).
The data for the 2024/25 academic year was compiled from 337 higher education institutions across Poland. Read more here.
