The new academic year officially kicked off on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
As of June, there were 359 institutions of higher education in Poland, according to the national statistics agency GUS.
In the 2022/2023 academic year, Polish universities taught 1,223,600 students, including 105,400 foreign students, mostly from Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey and other European countries, the PAP news agency reported.
The University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków topped the 2023 Higher Education Providers Ranking, compiled by the Perspektywy website.
The Warsaw Institute of Technology came third, while the Leon Koźmiński Academy in Warsaw was ranked first among private higher education providers, the PAP news agency reported.
EUR 1 bn in new funding for science and higher education
For the 2023/2024 academic year, Poland’s Ministry of Education and Science has announced more than EUR 1 billion in new funding for science and higher education, including pay raises for academic teachers and staff.
There will also be new majors, such as nuclear engineering, and more modern equipment for research and development projects, according to officials.
The ministry plans to launch the first Centres of Vocational Excellence, designed to bring together schools, universities and business to foster innovation, the PAP news agency reported.
The government expects to open a total of 120 such facilities throughout Poland, addressed to high-school and university students, postgraduate students as well as teachers, officials said.
The ministry will also increase "financial assistance for students with fewer resources," grant 840 scholarships for significant scientific, artistic or sporting achievement, and “work to foster closer cooperation between Polish and foreign science centres,” it said.
Millions for Lublin Institute of Technology in Poland's east
Education and Science Minister Przemysław Czarnek on Monday attended the launch of the new academic year at the Lublin Institute of Technology in eastern Poland, the PAP news agency reported.
Czarnek announced PLN 14.7 million (EUR 3.2 million) in new government funding for the institution, including PLN 10 million (EUR 2.2 million) for an in-house Eastern Centre of Science and Robotics, and funds for pay hikes and initiatives to promote science, officials said.
The education minister said that the Lublin Institute of Technology needed a “quality robotics programme” and also praised the institution for sharing its achievements with other universities, adding the government would continue to support such efforts, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl
