the option to pay to attend a Polish university if you don't make the matura ranking?
There are weekend (occasionally evening) programs people can pay for (at one point they were all that were keeping universities financially afloat though they're not so important now). The level is often not as high as day studies.
I'm in higher education... let's leave it at that (I know from where I speak when it comes to students - have had a few Ukrainian and a Belarusian student in recent years and they mostly don't stand out one way or the other. Though they seem to suffer more in exams but I think exams are stressed too much here).
I've also had a few students whose parents returned to Poland after years Germany. They stand out more (either with German accents in Polish or extreme German body language)...
in those countries where post-25 you don't get any chance
A number of years ago there was a student in his mid 20s (while most were 21 - it was a second or third program for him).
As soon as he left the room a colleague grabbed his index, saw his age and exclaimed 'To stary facet!'....