In ten years Poland will see a rapid decrease of the number of students.

According to a report quoted by the Rzeczpospolita daily the present 1.9 million students will drop to 1.2 million in 2020.

The prognosis spells trouble for many schools of higher learning in Poland, especially in the north east and south, which are not popular among students , who continue to count on studies in large prestigious centers like Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw or Katowice.

Already the less popular colleges have  problems with acquiring students, the worst situation is in private schools of higher learning, since the majority of secondary school graduates apply first for state financed studies and paid courses are seen as a last resort.

To keep their position on the market private schools offer special elite courses or come up with incentives aimed at attracting the attention of students.

The demographic low , which will cause the drop of students by one third in 2020, will have a great bearing also on public universities, which are already preparing programmes on attracting more students.

The regions which will become most affected with the demographic low  also count on students from Ukraine and Belarus. (ab)