Young people from all over the world study in this country, attracted by the good teaching standards of Polish colleges and low costs. Everyone benefits from this, especially as foreign students are becoming a necessity for many colleges now that the country faces a demographic crisis.

With foreign students in mind, many Polish colleges offer special curricula in English. For example, foreigners can study in English: management, international relations, IT, economics, finance and administration with a special focus on European Union law. Tuition is some 2,500 euros a year. Teaching foreigners is also good business for lecturers as the rates for teaching in English are up to three times higher than those for teaching in Polish.

Cheaper education
A total of 10,100 foreigners were studying in Poland in the 2005/2006 academic year, compared with just 4,300 some 15 years ago. Most foreigners studied at universities-3,700, medical academies-2,500, business colleges-1,800 and technology colleges-780. European students comprise the biggest group, 6,700, yet students from more distant countries also come to Poland. For example, the Medical Academy in Warsaw hopes to attract students from Malaysia. The school has received money from the government of Saudi Arabia to cover tuition for 20 students from that country. The school has 356 foreign students from 35 countries. Last year, it had two and a half times more candidates than it could admit. Only 90 candidates with the best educational record stand a chance of being admitted every year. There are many students from Sweden, Norway, the United States and Canada. Each year of the six-year program costs 8,700 euros, or around zl.34,000.

For many foreigners, studying in Poland is four to five times cheaper than in their home countries, and living costs are also lower.

Polish roots
More than half the foreign students at Polish colleges are of Polish origin or hold dual citizenship. Many of them, apart from studying, want to get to know the country of their ancestors. Most come from Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Russia and Kazakhstan.

The European Union's Erasmus program plays an important role in student exchanges, enabling Polish students to study abroad and creating opportunities for foreigners to study in Poland. The program involves scholarships that cover half the costs of living in a given country.

But the European Commission is working on new educational programs to replace Erasmus. Many fear that Polish students will have fewer opportunities of studying abroad under these programs. For example, British colleges are no longer willing to extend student-exchange agreements with Polish colleges, and Scandinavian colleges are also having second thoughts. The number of young Poles wanting to study in foreign countries is much larger than the number of foreigners wishing to study in Poland. Experts say one way to attract more foreign students to Poland would be to introduce student visas similar to those used in many other European countries.

Pros and cons
A recent poll by the Education Research and Development Center of the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź shows that young foreigners give high ratings to Polish teachers for their knowledge and teaching methods. Among the cons of studying in Poland, they mention unsatisfactory access to the internet and sports facilities, poor medical services and the low standards of Polish dorms. Also, there are problems with the recognition of Polish university diplomas abroad, particularly in non-EU countries. However, despite these criticisms, 97 percent of the foreigners studying in Poland said they would recommend Polish colleges to their friends.