Human capital

Academic center

Throughout Małopolska, in the academic year 2022/2023, 144,000 people (including 8.7 thousand foreigners) studied at 25 universities based in the Małopolska Region.

The largest academic center is Krakow, where 127,600 people (including 8.2 thousand foreigners) studied.

The best universities in the country are based in Krakow. According to the “Perspektywy 2023” Ranking of Academies, the Jagiellonian University is number 1 place in Poland among universities, and the AGH University of Science and Technology is second among Polish technical universities.

And these are the universities that are most popular among college graduates. These universities have also been recognized in the prestigious Shanghai ranking of “1,000 best universities in the world”:

• Jagiellonian University – 401-500
• Stanisław Staszic AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow – 601-700

Universities in Małopolska focus on development of modern education, closely related to the expectations of the labor market, hence they offer fields of study such as biotechnology, IT, materials engineering, chemistry and process engineering, electronics and telecommunications, chemical technologies, design, economics, finance and accounting, management and marketing, linguistics.

Below is the distribution of students in the most popular fields of study:

• Business, administration and law – 28,100 (19.5%)
• Technology, industry and construction – 26,000 (18.1%)
• Social sciences, journalism and information – 23,100 (16.0%)
• Humanities and arts – 18,100 (12.5%)

The largest group of graduates completed their studies in the following fields:

• Technology, industry and construction – 8,300 (22.8% of all graduates)
• Business, administration and law – 7,400 (20.4%)
• Social sciences, journalism and information – 4,400 (12.3%)
• Humanities and arts – 4,000 (11.1%)

As of December 31, 2022, there were 8,700 foreigners, which constituted 6.1% of the total number of students. The foreign students came from 125 countries. The largest group, 5,000 , were from Ukraine (57.0% of foreign students). Belarus was well represented (900 students, 10.1%), followed by Norway (400, 4.8%), China (300, 3.8%) and Spain (300, 3.2%).

As of December 31, 2022, 10,300 persons (including 200 foreigners) participated in postgraduate studies in the academic year 2022/2023. Postgraduate students supplemented their knowledge primarily in the fields of:

• Business, administration and law – 3,900 (38.1%)
• Education – 1,300 (12.5%)
• Health and social care – 1,000 (10.1%)
• ICT technologies – 900 (8.9%)
• Technology, industry and construction – 900 (8.8%)
• 8,300 postgraduate diplomas were issued in the academic year 2021/2022.

Labor market

The following factors boost the potential of the Małopolska labor market:

• 2 million inhabitants are people in working age (2022), of whom approximately 1.5 million are professionally active (working or actively looking for work)
• Małopolska is an attractive place to work for foreigners: in 2021 alone, over almost 43,000 work permits were issued for them.
• According to the demographic forecast prepared by the Central Statistical Office, by 2035 there will be a constant increase in the number of inhabitants in Małopolska.

The situation on the Małopolska labor market is reflected in the following statistical indicators regarding both Małopolska and Krakow alone.

MAŁOPOLSKA (June 2023)

• Unemployment rate – 4.3%
• Registered unemployed – 61,500
• Mean monthly gross remuneration in the enterprise sector – PLN 7,645.76
• Average employment in the enterprise sector – 548,400

KRAKOW (June 2023)

• Unemployment rate – 2.0%
• Registered unemployed – 10,800
• Mean monthly gross remuneration in the enterprise sector – PLN 9,134.24
• Average employment in the enterprise sector – 243,600