Education

The education of Polish society was a goal of rulers as early as the 12th century, and Poland soon became one of the most educated European countries. The library catalogue of the Cathedral Chapter of Kraków dating back to 1110 shows that already in the early 12th century Polish intellectuals had access to the European literature. In 1364, in Kraków, the Jagiellonian University, founded by King Casimir III, became one of Europe’s great early universities. In 1773 King Stanisław August Poniatowski established his Commission on National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej), the world’s first state ministry of education.

Current situation

Today Poland has more than a hundred tertiary education institutions; traditional universities to be found in its major cities of Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Lublin, Łódź, Olsztyn, Opole, Poznań, Rzeszów, Szczecin, Toruń, Warsaw, Wrocław and Zielona Góra as well as technical, medical, economic institutions elsewhere, employing around 61,000 workers. There are also around 300 research and development institutes, with about 10,000 more researchers. In total, there are around 91,000 scientists in Poland today.

According to Frost & Sullivan’s Country Industry Forecast the country becoming an interesting location for research and development investments.[20] Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics and Microsoft, set up their R&D centres in Poland. Motorola in Kraków, Siemens in Wrocław and Samsung in Warszawa are one of the largest owned by those companies.[21] Over 40 R&D centres, and 4,500 of researchers makes Poland biggest R&D hub in the Central and Eastern Europe.[22] Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labor force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in Central Europe.[23]

According to KPMG report[24] 80% of Poland’s current investors are contented with their choice and willing to reinvest. In 2006 Intel decided to double the number of employees in its R&D centre.[25]

The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Poland’s education as the 23rd best in the world, being neither significantly higher nor lower than the OECD average.[2]

Telecommunication and IT
For a more detailed treatment of this topic, see the subarticles Communications in Poland and Software development in Poland.

The share of the telecom sector in the GDP is 4.4% (end of 2000 figure), compared to 2.5% in 1996. Nevertheless, despite high expenditures for telecom infrastructure (the coverage increased from 78 users per 1000 inhabitants in 1989 to 282 in 2000).

The value of the telecommunication market is zl 38.2bn (2006), and it grew by 12.4% in 2007 PMR [3]

the coverage mobile cellular is over 1000 users per 1000 people (2007)

* Telephones—mobile cellular: 38.7 million (Onet.pl & GUS Report, 2007)
* Telephones—main lines in use: 12.5 million (Telecom Team Report, 2005)