Inside the List
By : Justyna Wrobel
Krzysztof Pawlowski, a rector at one of the best-known business schools in Poland, first came to prominence as a senator in the first democratic elections in Poland 12 years ago.
As part of his job, he traveled with a group of politicians to Germany to look at business institutes. The trip changed his life and resulted in the founding of the Nowy Sacz Business School-National-Louis University (Wyzsza Szkola Biznesu-National-Louis University WSB-NLU) (http://www.wsb-nlu.edu.pl) in the southeastern city of Nowy Sacz in 1992. National-Louis University, based in Chicago, cofounded the school and provided business and English courses.
The changing face of education
Since Pawlowski set up his ground breaking school a decade ago, business education in Poland has changed dramatically. Under communism, private schools of any kind were forbidden. Students had a choice of five state-owned business universities, the most prestigious and oldest of which was the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) (http://www.sgh.edu.pl), set up in 1906. That all changed in 1991, when a new law on university education was passed. Following that, more than 100 private business schools set up around the country.
Since the early 1990s, competition between business schools has increased considerably, although many in the industry say there is still room for more schools.
"I wouldn't say the competition is too big," said Lech Ostrowski, rector at the Academy of Enterpreneurship (Wyzsza Szkola Dzialalnosci Gospodarczej) in Warsaw. He said there's still a demand because of the demographic peak of students in Poland during the past few years. But he warned that this will inevitably change as the number of new students falls.
"For this huge demographic peak, the number of schools is appropriate," said Wladyslaw Balicki, rector at the Banking Academy in Poznan (Wyzsza Szkola Bankowa), a leading private academy in Wielkopolska province. "But it will change in a few years when the demand for schools drops as the (demographic) depression starts."
Meanwhile, some analysts are already ringing the alarm bells of market saturation. Jacek Puka of Katowice-based Upper Silesian University of Commerce (Gornoslaska Wyzsza Szkola w Katowicach) (http://www.gwsh.wsi.edu.pl/) said there were already too many business schools. "The market is pretty saturated already," he said. "Currently the number of schools is huge and the moment of truth (as to which schools will survive) will come within four to five years."
The question of finances
One factor deciding the future of many schools is financing as private schools rely on fee-paying students.
"Sponsoring of business schools doesn't exist in Poland, while it's common in the West," said Oktawian Koczuba, deputy head of the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management (LKAEM) (http://www.wspiz.edu.pl) in Warsaw. "(In the West) As a rule, (only) 60% of costs are covered by students' fees," Koczuba said. The remaining 40% is provided by sponsors.
As a result, studying in private business schools can be expensive. LKAEM is considered one of the best business schools in Poland and in October will charge about zl. 3,700 per semester for a bachelor's degree, which lasts about six semesters. A master's of science degree takes about 10 semesters and will also cost zl. 3,800 per semester. MBA programs, which take three semesters, will vary from zl. 4,200- zl. 10,000 per term.
While private schools are popular among many rising stars in the business world, many students still prefer less costly public schools. "There are plenty of students who want to study in state-owned universities on a full-time basis," Balicki said, adding that public universities are still perceived as providing a high level of education. In addition to teaching at the Banking Academy in Poznan, Balicki is also a lecturer at the state-run Poznan Academy at Economics. "The initial selection is huge there. There is nothing like that in private schools," he said.
Warsaw's SGH is still considered the business education leader. Every year about 3,500 students apply and only 1,000 of them are accepted. Although Polkowski said SGH is No. 1 (in terms of quality), he also valued the curriculums of business schools such as WSB-NLU and LKAEM.
But Polkowski admitted that recent market reforms have brought new challenges for students. For instance, there's a far more competitive spirit, particularly with worries of unemployment after college. Also business schools are now opening new departments and increasing the number of postgraduate studies.
"There is still a big gap in postgraduate studies (on offer)," Polkowski said, adding that students enroll in postgraduate studies to improve their qualifications. He said having only a master's degree is not enough today. In one year, the number of postgraduate SGH students grew by 500 (in 1999-2000) to almost 3,000 (in 2000-2001) while the number of postgraduate programs grew by five to 50.
