Who shall pay for the public good? Comparative trends in the funding crisis of public higher education

Abstract

Polish higher education is one of the most heavily marketised systems in Europe, due to its extraordinarily high share of fee-paying students and the highest share of enrolments (and student numbers) in a private sector in Europe (0.58 million students out of 1.82 million in 2010). Expected demographics may fundamentally change the educational setting in the country, though: it may lead to the re-monopolisation of the system by the public sector, which was unthinkable a decade ago.