Young, talented and... gone?

The forecasts give us scant grounds for optimism. Between 2015 and 2024, the number of young Poles in the 20–24 age group, who amount to just under 2.5 mln at present, is set to fall by around 800,000. Even though a slight increase is expected later, after 2030 there will be a further decrease to fewer than 1.5 mln in 2050, according to the data of the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) and the ‘Higher Education Diagnosis’ report prepared by the Polish Rectors Foundation in 2015. “Changing demographic trends, the outflow of the boom generation from universities and the rapid decline in the size of the population at the student age, are creating a new situation, which has and will have a strong influence on universities, leading to changes in the structure and the functioning of the entire sector,” write its authors. Office tenants are also more and more concerned about the decreasing number of students a