In Poland more than a third of students are educated outside the state system. Nearly 300 private universities teach almost 630,000 students a year which is the highest private-sector enrolment in Europe. What differs them from students studying at public universities, they have to pay fees as these institutions do not receive any direct government funding. Not so far ago Britain's coalition government has cut funding to universities in England. Now it plans to give more opportunities to new private education providers in the hope that this could decrease tuition fees. All in all, Poland’s system can be a tempting model to follow by England.
Private institutions in Poland respond to the changes in the employment market quicker than public universities although they argue this assumption. Actually, private institutions are mostly focused on vocational subjects like economics, management,
essay writing and computer science. However, this does not mean that they do not support
PhD students who are conducting original research for a certain project. These peculiarities of private universities in Poland can be usefully introduced into a fellow system in England. Many Polish employers take suspiciously education received at private universities as it looks as if they "buy" their degrees. Andrzej Mania, the Jagiellonian's vice-rector for educational affairs, has a skeptical view about the quality of private universities. He admits: "Definitely we feel the pressure. We maybe are extremely proud at being so old, big and distinguished a university. We're not afraid in the primitive sense [of private universities]."
According to 2009 figures, private universities in Poland are primarily teaching institutions and only 1.8% of their income comes from research. Teaching staff consists of public neighbors and the majority of institutions are narrowly focused on social sciences, business and humanities.
