Here are the highlights:

·      Policy changes in Australia, Canada, and the UK are making students think twice about where they want to study abroad

·      These destinations’ relatively expensive study and living costs are also a barrier for many prospective international students

·      Alternative destinations are picking up market share of global outbound student mobility

·      Poland and the Philippines are two examples of this trend (read part 2 of this article for information on the Philippines)

A growing body of industry research shows that in 2024, international students are considering a wider range of destinations, motivated by such factors as ease of getting a visa, post-study work opportunities, and affordability.

Today, our focus is on two alternative destinations that have – relatively quietly – been attracting considerably more student interest than in the past.

These destinations are Poland and the Philippines, countries that are all attractive in terms of affordability as well as strengths unique to their location and education system (read part 2 of this article for information on the Philippines).

Please note: Cost of living and study costs change fairly regularly, as do visa requirements. It’s important to check with individual institutions and government officials for the most current information in these respects.

Poland

Over the course of the past decade, the number of international students in Poland has tripled and last year reached a record-high of over 100,000 according to the education magazine Perspektywy. A total of 102,200 international students were registered in the education ministry database for the 2022/23 academic year and about 9% of all students in Poland’s universities are now foreign.

Poland offers over 300 English-taught university programmes, an advantage that appeals to a large segment of international students.

Steep rise in Ukrainians

A key reason for the increase is a significant rise in the number of Ukrainian students, many of whom have left their country due to Russia’s invasion. Nearly 50,000 Ukrainians are studying in Poland and account for nearly half of all foreign students.

But as reported in NotesfromPoland.com, Poland is also attracting students from a wide range of other countries, including Belarus (12,000), Turkey (3,800), Zimbabwe (3,600), India (2,700), Azerbaijan (2,500), Uzbekistan (2,100), China (1,800), Kazakhstan (1,700), and Nigeria (1,600).

The presence of so many Zimbabweans is interesting – there are more Zimbabwean students in Poland than in Canada (1,425), the US (1,790), or Australia (1,665), despite these destinations’ more intense recruiting in Zimbabwe over the past couple of years.

Of the 100,000+ international students in 2022/23, Perspektywy magazine notes: “This reflects the huge amount of work done by Polish higher education in the last 19 years … when Poland joined the EU in 2004 it had only 8,800 foreign students … just 0.5% of all students at the time and the lowest relative figure in Europe.”

Affordability

Poland is an affordable destination compared to many in Europe. Study.eu provides the following illustrative chart showing tuition fees at several major Polish universities:

The Polish government says that international students can expect a cost of living of about €330 (US$350) a month, though living in cities can be more expensive. More information can be viewed here.

The fee for a student visa application is €80 (US$85). In terms of proof of funds, a student must show they have 776 PLN (US$190) plus tuition for each month of their stay in Poland plus enough for return travel back to their country. They must also show they can pay for accommodation.

12 Universities in the Top 1,000

There are close to 400 state and private universities in Poland. Two Polish universities are in the top 500 in QS’s 2024 World University Rankings: University of Warsaw (#262) and Jagiellonian University (#304). Overall, these are the Polish universities in the top 1,000:

1. University of Warsaw: #262
2. Jagiellonian University: #304
3. Warsaw University of Technology: #571
4. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań: #731-740
5. Poznan University of Life Sciences: #801-850
6. Gdańsk University of Technology: #851-900
7. AGH University of Krakow: #901-950
8. Nicolaus Copernicus University: #901-950
9. University of Wroclaw: #901-950
10. Wroclaw University of Science and Technology: #901-950
11. University of Gdańsk: #951-1000
12. University of Lodz: #951-1000

Poland and the Philippines are just two of the alternative destinations enrolling many more students than in the past on the basis of affordability. Other host countries that have attracted significantly more international students over the past few years include Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, and Japan.