17 - Poland - Private Education

Teacher training colleges, foreign language teacher training colleges and colleges of social work

Non-public colleges are established and operate on the basis of the same legislation as public colleges. All three types of non-public colleges, including teacher training and foreign language teacher training colleges and colleges of social work, are established and administered by natural persons or corporate bodies other than local government units. The establishment of a non-public college requires a permit to be granted by the minister responsible for school education in the case of teacher training and foreign language teacher training colleges or by the minister responsible for social security in the case of colleges of social work. In the academic year 2007/08, there are 3 non-public teacher training colleges, 30 non-public foreign language teacher training colleges and 3 non-public colleges of social work. Students of non-public colleges are entitled to the same forms of maintenance-related financial support as students in public colleges. Non-public colleges provide programmes and award diplomas in accordance with the same arrangements as outlined for public colleges in the previous sections.

Higher education institutions

A legal basis for the establishment of non-public HEIs was created by the Higher Education Act of 12 September 1990. As from the late 1990s, non-public “higher vocational education schools”, authorised to provide only Bachelor’s degree programmes, could also be established on the basis of the Act on Schools of Higher Vocational Education of 26 June 1997. First non-public HEIs, except for several previously existing HEIs administered by churches and other denominational organisations, were registered in 1991. Since the early 1990s the non-public sector has expanded rapidly to include 318 HEIs (13 of which are administered by churches and other denominational organisations) in the academic year 2006/07. In the same academic year, students enrolled in non-public HEIs (640,313) accounted for 33% of the total student population (1,941,445) in the higher education sector. In terms of the number of students enrolled, there are considerable differences between individual non-public HEIs. Some of them have several hundred students, while others train several thousand students.

Non-public HEIs have been subject to the same legislation as public HEIs. Like public HEIs, they were divided until recently into “higher education schools” and “schools of higher vocational education” (or “higher vocational education schools”), operating on the basis of the two separate Acts of 1990 and 1997 mentioned above. The 2005 Law on Higher Education, which repealed the legislation previously in force, divides non-public HEIs – like public HEIs – into university-type and non-university HEIs. Most of the 318 currently existing non-public HEIs are non-university HEIs; over 80 of them are authorised to provide both Bachelor’s degree (first-cycle) programmes and Master’s degree (long-cycle and/or second-cycle), whereas over 220 may only provide Bachelor’s degree (first-cycle) programmes. Only 11 of non-public institutions are university-type HEIs, authorised to award the academic degree of doktor and to provide doctoral programmes in at least one of their organisational units.

Non-public HEIs are established by natural persons or corporate bodies, except corporate bodies administered by national or local authorities. The establishment of a non-public HEI requires a permit granted by the minister responsible for higher education. The first permit is issued for a period of five years. After consultation with the State Accreditation Committee (SAC), the permit may be extended by the minister either for an indefinite period of time, if degree programmes provided in all fields of study have received a positive assessment by the SAC, or for a fixed period of time in any other case. The minister may refuse to extend the permit if activities of a non-public HEI are in breach of the law or the degree programmes provided in all fields of study have received a negative assessment by the SAC.

Students enrolled in non-public HEIs may apply for financial support in accordance with the same rules as students in public HEIs. Non-public HEIs are granted a State-budget subsidy for the tasks related to non-reimbursable financial support for students. If complying with the requirements laid down in the relevant legislation, non-public HEIs may also be granted a subsidy to cover a part of fees paid by full-time students and full-time doctoral students, and subsidies contributing towards the costs of various tasks (e.g. training of academic staff, maintenance, investment projects), specified in the 2005 Law on Higher Education, which are not related to the teaching of full-time students and full-time doctoral students.

Non-public HEIs are required to comply with the same requirements for the provision of degree and doctoral programmes as public HEIs. They provide degree programmes and/or doctoral programmes and award relevant degrees and academic degrees in accordance with the same arrangements as those outlined for public HEIs in the previous sections. However, non-public HEIs charge tuition fees for both full-time and part-time programmes offered. The levels of tuition fees are vary varied; they range from 1,600 to 8,000 PLN per year, depending on the institution, mode of study (full-time or part-time), field of study or even the year of study (higher fees in the first year, lower fees in the following years). As far as fields of study are concerned, a decided majority of non-public HEIs offer degree programmes in business and administration, social sciences and related areas. In recent years, students have shown growing interest in the fields of mathematics and computer science. A growing number of programmes have also been developed in so-called “cheap fields of study”, i.e. those which do not require a high level of investment in equipment and laboratories. This is due mainly to the fact that non-public HEIs are dependant on tuition fees paid by students.

Institutions:

The State Accreditation Committee
ul. Żurawia 32/34 00-515 Warszawa
Tel.:+48 (22) 622 07 18
Website: http://www.men.waw.pl

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