ELA: valuable insights for students and decision-makers
ELA is developed and maintained by OPI PIB on behalf of MNiSW. The system is among the most cutting-edge in Europe. Since 2016, ELA has consistently offered reliable data on the economic circumstances of higher education graduates in Poland.
This year’s edition features additional comprehensive data on domestic migration of graduates and their professional activity based on the province of graduation and current residence. This data serves not only as a valuable source of information for prospective students, but also as a strategic tool for local authorities seeking to better understand youth mobility and to plan effective regional policies.
‘With ELA, you can explore which fields of study lead to better salaries, how quickly graduates secure jobs, and—new this year—how their career paths differ by province of graduation, residence, and employment,’ says Maria Mrówczyńska, Undersecretary of State in MNiSW. ELA’s new features make it a powerful tool not only for secondary school graduates but also for local authorities. The system sheds light on youth mobility and helps design policies to retain the most talented graduates in their home regions,’ adds Mrówczyńska.
Exploring graduate migration: ELA’s new perspective
The new data category is demonstrated through the example of the graduates who completed second-cycle and long-cycle programmes in 2023. The analysis pertains to their regional mobility and economic activity during the first year following graduation. Data covering all study cycles is also available in ELA for the 2019–2022 cohorts.
The migration mechanisms are presented using three indicators. Each province presents statistics on the percentage of graduates who left the province in which they had studied.
‘Warmińsko-Mazurskie recorded the largest share of graduates who relocated after completing their studies. It was nearly three times higher than that of graduates from the Podkarpacie province (43.9% vs. 15.3%). Dolnośląskie recorded the second-highest graduate relocation rate at 36.2%,’ explains Dr Mikołaj Jasiński, expert at OPI PIB.
The other two indicators examine migration from an economic perspective.
One of them compares nominal earnings of graduates who left the province where they had studied with those who stayed in the province. The other indicator describes the relative economic situation of graduates who relocated and those who stayed in the province in which they had studied. This indicator highlights how the Relative Earnings Rate (RER) differs between both groups of graduates.
’According to ELA, graduates from Śląskie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie recorded the largest increase in nominal earnings after relocating (PLN +1454.18 and PLN +1273.64, respectively), whereas graduates from Dolnośląskie experienced the largest decrease in nominal earnings after relocating (PLN -345.02). Graduate mobility had little to no impact on graduate earnings in Zachodniopomorskie (PLN 0) and Podkarpackie (PLN +15.70),’ says Dr Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak of Warsaw School of Economics and expert at OPI PB. It is important to note, however, that the same earnings across regions with varying economic conditions indicate differing standings in local labour markets,’ adds Dr Chłoń-Domińczak.
The latest data shows that regional differences in the economic standing of migrating vs. non-migrating graduates are considerable.
‘Śląskie recorded the highest positive balance (+0.22), indicating that graduates who left this province earned 22% more than the local average earnings during the first year following their graduation compared to those who stayed in Śląskie,’ explains Dr Marek Bożykowski, expert at OPI PIB. Most neutral results were observed in Zachodniopomorskie (+0.01), while negative values were recorded in Podkarpackie, Lubelskie, and Opolskie (all at -0.03),’ adds Dr Bożykowski.
The Relative Earnings Rate shows an even stronger correlation—compared to nominal earnings—between the migration balance and graduates’ willingness to migrate. The correlation coefficient of 0.28 was twice as high as in the case of nominal earnings. This suggests that migration is driven more by career opportunities than by salary alone.
Three provinces, three graduate migration mechanisms
Graduates from Warmińsko-Mazurskie were the most inclined to leave their home region after graduation. They were strongly incentivised by higher balances of nominal earnings and a stronger economic standing compared to those who decided to stay in the province.
A different pattern emerged in Dolnośląskie. Despite a similarly large share of migrating graduates, those who stayed earned more. According to Statistics Poland, Dolnośląskie stands out as one of the highest-earning provinces in Poland, both for graduates and other employees. Interestingly, even with lower earnings, graduates who left Dolnośląskie attained a more favourable economic standing compared to those who decided not to leave the province. This suggests that the pursuit of better job opportunities outweighed the importance of salary.
Even with the lowest earnings in Poland, both for graduates and other employees, Podkarpackie recorded the smallest share of graduates choosing to relocate. Those who moved from Podkarpackie after graduation had comparable earnings to those who stayed, but their financial standing was slightly worse when adjusting for local wages and living costs. This suggests that graduates from Podkarpackie had little economic motivation to leave the region.
Beyond the paycheck: what else drives graduates’ choices?
The latest ELA data is an important source of information about graduates’ mobility and the economic aspects of their decisions. While there is a positive link between the tendency to migrate and the financial benefits of moving, the correlation is not particularly strong. This indicates that non-economic factors, such as social ties, cost of living, or job environment, could significantly influence post-graduation relocation decisions; however, confirming this hypothesis would necessitate separate research relying on different data sets.
The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA)
The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) is developed and maintained by the National Information Processing Institute (OPI) on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW). It provides reliable information on the circumstances of graduates of Polish higher education institutions in the labour market. It relies on data that has been gathered in public registers. ELA imports information from POL-on, another system developed by OPI PIB, and uses data collected by the Polish Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). All data processed by the system is anonymised. Appropriate security mechanisms have also been implemented. The system is innovative and user-friendly. It generates reports, rankings and infographics to satisfy users’ needs.
The system is accessible to the public at www.ela.nauka.gov.pl.