Warsaw, 19 August 2024

Estimated Mr.

Radosław Sikorski

Minister of Foreign Affairs

 

Sir,

 

In connection with the introduction by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of new guidelines for Polish Consulates regarding the issuance of student visas for foreigners wishing to study at Polish universities, we kindly ask you to take into account the following circumstances:  

 

1. Although the number of foreign students in Poland exceeds one hundred thousand, they constitute only about 5% of all students at domestic universities. In the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia and Slovakia, they make up 10 to 15% of students. In Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, about 20%, and in Luxembourg almost half. Young people who intend to study in Poland and spend the best years of their lives there should be treated with due kindness, as future admirers and friends of our country. After returning to their homelands, they will reminisce about their student years in Warsaw, Krakow or another Polish city and be our "ambassadors" in their social and professional circles. This is one of the reasons how countries receiving many times more students than Poland are guided.

 

2. The unemployment rate in Poland calculated according to the LFS method is currently 3% and is the second lowest in the entire European Union. Meanwhile, a large part of foreign students of Polish universities want to combine study with work. They should be able to do so without any restrictions, given that many branches of the Polish economy lack workers. More or less random employees, imported by Polish companies from more and more distant regions of the world, are by nature less educated, do not know the Polish language and are more difficult to assimilate into the Polish cultural environment than foreign students already residing in Poland.

 

3. The population in Poland decreased by 130 thousand last year, and the demographic situation of our country is constantly deteriorating. A significant number of foreign students want to stay in Poland after graduation, develop their careers here, start families and become part of our society. They and their children will be a significant, skilled demographic reinforcement for the country.

 

4. The financial situation of national public and non-public univeristies is difficult due to insufficient funding from the state budget or its symbolic amount (in the case of non-public HEIs), rapid increase in salaries in sectors competing with science, and a decreasing number of candidates. Polish public and non-public universities, sometimes cover up to about 20% of their costs from the fees they charge foreign students.

 

5. Particular restrictions on the issuance of student visas imposed by Poland on India do not take into account the world's largest population potential of this country, the rapid growth of its middle class and the widespread knowledge of the official (along with Hindi) English language. Students from India are welcome in all major academic centers, and those from India are invited to senior positions in the fastest-growing technology companies.

 

We kindly ask you to modify the guidelines for issuing student visas for foreigners in such a way that it will take into account all important premises that guided their creation, but also take into account all the above and unmentioned circumstances that are important for interests of Poland. We support a clean up, better verification procedures and the restoration of trust.

 

If you, Sir, consider its appropriate, then the Polish Education Union, associating outstanding universities and schools, through its Centre of Didactic and Scientific Excellence CDDiN and its Council composed of outstanding representatives of science and higher education, declares that it will undertake to organize a team consisting of representatives of rectors' and students' organizations, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which will develop legal regulations for student visas for foreigners in a short time.

 

We kindly ask for your position on this matter.            

  

Yours sincerely,

     

Mieczysław Błoński, PhD

CEO

Attn:

1. Mr. Dariusz Wieczorek, Minister of Science and Higher Education

2. Prof. Arkadiusz Mężyk, Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland

3. Stanisław Mocek, Prof. CC, Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Non-Public Universities

4. Prof. Waldemar Tłokiński, Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Vocational Schools in Poland

5. Prof. Jerzy Woźnicki, President of the Management Board of the Polish Rectors Foundation