Finansowanie szkolnictwa wyższego w Polsce i innych krajach Unii Europejskiej[Higher education financing in Poland and other European Union member states]

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the scale and structure of high education financing structure in Poland and other European countries. The paper also compares the efficiency of higher education spending across these countries. In line with the analyses showed in the paper, higher education financing per capita is lower than the European Union average and the spending is to a relatively little extent channelled to research and development project. The paper contains simulation results, according to which higher education financing, particularly for research and development, would have to be way higher in order for Poland to reach the same level of capital as in the Western Europe. Low level of expenditure is accompanied by unsatisfactory results of higher education in Poland, with respect to position in University rankings, number of publications, number of patents and co-operation with industry. At the same time, case studies of higher education financing in other European countries, also in Central and Eastern Europe, indicate that achieving good outcome in the abovementioned aspects even with low level of high education financing, yet under condition of adequate combination of financing larger break-through projects with small and less innovative projects, yet with a greater probability of completion.