The tenth edition of the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) arrives this autumn with new, revealing information. In addition to the annual autumn updates of indicators and summaries, 2025 brings insightful aspects that further enhance the system. Experts at the National Information Processing Institute (OPI PIB) have elaborated on disruptions in students’ educational pathways, their financial implications, and the migration destinations of dropouts. The system now offers improved access to information on students’ economic engagement both while studying and at the moment of dropping out.
More accurate presentation of disruptions in educational pathways
After conducting in depth analyses on study trajectories, the ELA team at OPI PIB identified a new category of disruption: parallel dropout. This type of disruption occurs when a student simultaneously pursuing multiple programmes discontinues at least one of them but remains enrolled in the others. The phenomenon might be seen negatively as dropping out, yet positively as a constructive move toward mobility and a pursuit of broader education. It complements the existing classification of modifications to educational pathways, which includes: dropout, stopout, and swapout.
The new category supports the more comprehensive presentation of the scale and dynamics of disruptions in educational pathways. The new results are presented in two types of reports: ‘Course of studies’ and ‘Economic background of dropout’.
Measures of the real costs of disruptions in educational pathways
One essential aspect in measuring the costs of education is the time needed to successfully complete a stage of education, for example to earn a degree. A discontinued programme means that multiple semesters are funded by the higher education system without delivering a degree. Even extended studies that take longer but end successfully in a degree remain less expensive for the universities and the state than unfinished programmes. Since it is well established that dropouts fare worse in the labour market than graduates, the added time required to complete a degree because of dropout represents a significant measure of loss.
This year’s autumn edition presents these results in two modules: ‘Students’ and ‘Doctoral candidates’.
The ‘Students’ module offers three indicators:
- the total number of semesters per degree earned – regardless of whether the students earned a degree or not
- the number of semesters per degree earned among those who earned a degree
- the difference between these indicators—representing the cost resulting from disruptions in educational pathways.
The ‘Doctoral candidates’ module also offers three indicators:
- the total number of years of education per PhD – regardless of whether individuals earned a PhD, dropped out of a doctoral programme, or are still pursuing it
- the number of years of education per PhD among those who earned a PhD
- the difference between these indicators—representing the cost resulting from disruptions in educational pathways.
The new results are presented in two types of reports: ‘Course of Studies’ (the ‘Students’ module) and ‘Doctoral education pathways’ (the ‘Doctoral candidates’ module).
Geographical mobility after dropping out
In the spring update of the 10th ELA edition, experts at OPI PIB published findings on graduates’ mobility, presenting both the scale of the phenomenon and the economic consequences of relocating after graduation. Based on the conclusions from these analyses, experts conducted similar research on individuals who dropped out, meaning those who discontinued studies without earning a degree and without later joining another programme. The autumn update tracked the post-dropout geographic mobility of those who failed to earn a university degree. The results were presented in the similar way as those prepared for graduates.
Datasets on geographic mobility
The ‘Source data’ section of the ELA website now includes two expanded sets of aggregated data that are part of the ‘Geographic mobility’ module.
- The first dataset previously contained indicators for individuals who completed a given level of studies in a specific province (based on the location of the HEI or its satellite department). The dataset has been updated with indicators for individuals who dropped out of a given level of studies in a specific province and year and failed to pursue further programmes.
- (2) The second dataset previously contained indicators for individuals who completed a given level of studies at a specific HEI in a specific year. The dataset has been updated with indicators for individuals who dropped out of a given level of studies at given university in a specific year.
These datasets have been supplemented with the following indicators:
- the percentage of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- average earnings (in PLN) of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- median earnings (in PLN) of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- the average Relative Earnings Rate of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- the median Relative Earnings Rate of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout.
A new type of nationwide and university level reports: ‘Geographic mobility after dropout’
In autumn 2025, new reports were introduced in the ELA system. Their structure is similar to that of the reports on graduates, enabling easier comparison between the circumstances of graduates and dropouts.
(1) At the nationwide level, a separate report is prepared for each year in which dropout occurred and for each level of study. Each reports includes 16 sections (with three tables in each section), with one section per province.
The sections contain the following results for dropouts who discontinued their studies in a specific province (based on the location of the HEI or its satellite department):
- the percentage of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- median earnings (in PLN) of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- the median Relative Earnings Rate of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout.
(2) At the HEI level, a separate report is prepared for each year in which dropout occurred and for each level of study. Each report contains three tables that feature:
- the percentage of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- median earnings (in PLN) of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout
- the median Relative Earnings Rate of dropouts living in specific provinces in the first / second / third / fourth / fifth year after dropout.
Improved access to information on students’ economic engagement both while studying and at the moment of dropping out
Consultations with ELA system users revealed the need to simplify access to information on the correlation between students’ economic activity and their educational decisions.
The restructuring breaks the earlier ‘Work during studies’ report content into three shorter and more thematically coherent reports:
- 'Working during studies’ includes two subsections: ‘Work experience’ and ‘Percentage of months worked’. The report contains information on the percentage of students with work experience by type of employment (any work, employment contract, self employment) and the time an average student spent working according to specific employment conditions. The results are presented for each year of study and for the entire study period, separately for programmes with different number of semesters.
- ‘Earnings during studies’ includes information from the former ‘Earnings’ subsection. The report contains data on average monthly gross earnings (from all sources and from employment contracts) and the Relative Earnings Rate for individuals who worked during the entire period of their studies and in each year of study.
- ‘Economic background of droput’ includes information from the former chapters: ‘Labour market conditions that influence students’ decisions on adjusting their study pathways’ and ‘Comparison of the achievements of graduates and dropouts on the labour market’. The report contains information on the professional activity of individuals with different study pathway modifications in the academic year in which the modification occurred, as well as comparisons of labour market activity after dropout and after graduation.