Resolution in support of the “3% for Science, 100% for Poland” movement and adequate funding for Higher Education

The European Students’ Union (ESU) expresses its solidarity with the Polish academic community – students, doctoral candidates, researchers, and academic staff – united under the “3% dla nauki, 100% dla Polski” (3% for science, 100% for Poland) movement demanding substantial and systemic increases in public investment in higher education and research.

ESU notes with great concern that the chronic underfunding of the higher education and research sector in Poland, maintained at slightly above 1% of GDP, no longer corresponds to the scale of challenges facing the Polish academic system or its significance to the state’s development. This financial stagnation directly impacts the quality of education, limits access to modern infrastructure, and severely worsens the material situation of early-career researchers, doctoral candidates, and students. Furthermore, it creates a severe brain drain, making it increasingly difficult to retain scientific talent within the country. Underfunding also contributes to worsening learning conditions, increasing inequalities in access to higher education, overstretched support systems and growing uncertainty regarding the long-term sustainability of the sector.

ESU firmly reaffirms that higher education and science are fundamental public goods and public responsibilities. Investment in these sectors must not be treated as an optional expenditure, but as a necessary condition for democratic resilience, scientific progress, social cohesion and equal opportunities.

ESU further stresses that higher education and research must not be increasingly dependent on short-term political or market-oriented logic, but require stable, predictable and sufficient public funding.

Therefore, the European Students’ Union (ESU):

1. Stands in full solidarity with the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland (PSRP) and all participants of the “3% for science, 100% for Poland” movement.
2. Supports the core demand for a stable, predictable and multiannual public funding strategy linking expenditure on higher education and research to GDP growth, with the objective of reaching the target of 3% of GDP by 2030.
3. Calls on the Polish Government and the Ministry of Science to engage in meaningful and continuous dialogue with students, researchers and the wider academic community regarding the future financing and development of the sector.
4. Highlights that increased public investment must translate into tangible improvements, including accessible and high-quality learning and research environments, robust welfare support for students and doctoral candidates, and fair working conditions and compensation for academic staff.

ESU calls upon all stakeholders to recognize that the anxiety of the academic community is a clear signal that urgent action is needed. ESU stresses that the demands of the “3% dla nauki, 100% dla Polski” movement constitute a legitimate and urgent call for the protection of the future of Polish higher education and research.

Continued underinvestment in higher education is not a neutral budgetary decision, but a political choice with long-term consequences for students, researchers and society as a whole.

Reason & Seconders

For many years, public expenditure on higher education and research in Poland has stagnated at slightly above 1% of GDP. In response, the academic community – spearheaded by the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland (PSRP) and the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRASP) – support

Seconders: ŠRVŠ, SK RVŠ, VVS