From UK to Poland - studying for a Masters Degree in Warsaw

Hello everyone, I have just joined here but have been using this forum for a while now. I'm from the UK and will graduate from Northumbria University in 2016, after this I would love to study for a Masters Degree in Warsaw.

Wondering if any international students on here had experience of doing that? Is it easy enough to get a grant? A grant for living expenses would be great, but for course costs would be essential. Does anybody have any experience with this? I would love to get a part time job if my course allowed, I will be studying Finance or Management.

Good luck with that. I pay a small fortune for my daughter to study - there are no grants for living expenses. At least you don't pay tuition fees, such as were introduced in the UK by the traitor Blair.

No, you won't get a grant for covering living expenses or course costs. There are scholarships available, but these are subject to very strict criteria and you won't get them until after the 1st year. The amount is minimal as well - it might pay you enough to share a dorm room with 3 others and to eat very cheap food, but that's about it.

I am not sure of the information that if someone is studying in English they do not have to pay for their course fees.
as far as I was aware, in the UK you have to pay if you want to study a Master's degree, unless someone knows something different.

Scotland funds some postgraduate studies these days. No idea about the other three countries.


It depends on the course, although the vast majority of English-language courses are paid for.

I believe that the University course fees for International Students (even those from the UK) are FAR higher than for anyone on a Polish passport.

No, EU citizens are treated the same. It would be illegal to charge different fees to EU citizens than Polish ones.

The difference is that courses in English with low fees (or even zero fees) are incredibly competitive.

Well actually my University often gives scholarships to those wanting to study a masters there, but I do not. I have done my degree there and I would rather broaden my horizons by studying further afield.

To clear things up for people the fees are:
Warsaw School Of Economics - Finance and Accounting - 2550 EUR per semester
Kozminski University - Finance and Accounting - 2215 EUR per semester
University of Warsaw - Finance, Investments and Accounting - 1560 EUR per year

Finance courses in English are not paid for.
Regarding the grants, living expenses for myself are low, I already have free accommodation in Warsaw.

I am not bothered about how tough the selection criteria is, I was just looking for the names of some grants / scholarships which I could look into an apply for if they were suitable. If anybody could offer me some names that would be fantastic!

They are in some places. It depends on the university.


There are two - a social scholarship and an achievement scholarship. The first one is only given to people with exceptionally low monthly family income (less than around 500zl/month per person gross) - and the second is given to those that excel academically, but is only granted after the first year.

Okay, doesn't sound too promising. I will see if I can track down something anyway.

How would you rank these 3 Universities mentioned with International Credibility?

Warsaw School of Economics - ok.

None of them are internationally credible, but SGH (Warsaw School of Economics) has a very good reputation in Poland. Forget about the other two, one is a private university (it has some reputable courses, but not that) and the other is running those courses for cash.

But have you considered Germany? There are many courses available in English these days, tuition fees are free and there are other generous subsidies available.

I second Germany. I did two years of graduate school there on a very generous fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and would have had guaranteed continued funding had I chosen to stay.

Of course, the competition for such fellowships is fierce. You have to be a top student, be on intimate terms with your dean or a major professor at your own university, have been in steady contact with your prospective professor in German for at least a semester or two before you apply, and have a credible and workable study plan and thesis project well formulated by the time you apply. Even then, speaking German well gave me a huge advantage over the competition.

I also had a one-year grant from the Carlsberg Foundation (yes, the beer company) to study in Denmark, and it was even more generous. The thing that cinched it for me is that I taught myself Danish before I went, to a pretty high level. That impressed them a lot, as few foreigner academics bother learning Danish.

Both of those were for STEM fields. I don't know whether they also have fellowships for non-STEM fields. But generally fellowships in STEM fields are much easier to land than those in non-STEM fields.

If you cannot get a positively glowing letter of recommendation from both your dean or one of the senior professors at your school and also from your prospective professor in your target country, there is little chance that you will be granted a merit scholarship. There are a lot of students with excellent grades who failed to cultivate close relationships with these people, and, regardless of their grades, they would have great difficulty landing a merit scholarship. A cynical, perhaps, but very realistic way of saying this is that the goodies go to those students who have made a strenuous effort to prove that they belong to "the club", and have been accepted into the fold.

Germany may be something that I look into, but maybe in the future. The plan was for me to look for a job in London once I graduate and my girlfriend to do the same (she graduates this month). But her parents would love her to study for a Masters degree, more importance is placed on it by Polish people than us from the UK (usually you do it after being employed for a few years). Myself coming for a Masters would mean we could both study it in Warsaw (her home city) at the same time. If it can't happen then never mind, we will continue as we had previously planned. I am going to go the Universities mentioned this week for some meetings to discuss my options.