Private colleges at risk from demographic dip

According to the study by Poland's Socrates Institute, the country will have 800,000 less prospective students in 2020 than the 1.9 million registered at present.

The report, entitled “The Demographic Tsunami”, argues that private colleges in particular are set for “an exceptionally difficult situation.”

At present, among 450 established institutions of higher education in Poland, some 330 are private, reflecting the dynamic growth in the educational sphere since the collapse of communism in 1989.

“In the meantime, the demographic trend that was the driving force behind the development of higher education through most of the era of transformation is not only over, it has now started to go vehemently in the other direction,” the report declares. (nh)