What was said about Poland in London, i.e. Polish Economic Forum

LSE has over 11,000 annually. students, almost 70% of whom come from outside the UK, and employs 3,300 employees. Every year, approximately 90 students from Poland gain knowledge at this university.

About Poland in London

The thirteenth edition of the LSE SU Polish Business Society was organized by the association of Polish students at the London School of Economics, and the two-day debate took place during the first decade of March. Behind the scenes, it was possible to learn that students from Poland are most likely to choose economics or law. If they study law, it is of course English, which to some extent determines their future professional career. They would like to support transactions conducted by large law firms when one of the parties is a company from the United Kingdom, and these include highly emotional mergers and acquisitions, where legal due diligence is a standard part of M&A.

This year's event gathered over 700 Polish students from around the world, and its main topic was “35 years of growth: Navigating economic transformation.”

Green Deal and demography

If we were to generalize the course of the debates, the dominant issues concerned European demography (where Poland is an example of a country facing particularly serious problems), building the country's competitiveness, relations between the European Union and the USA, and the consequences of the Green Deal prepared by the EU.

Already during the first panel, with the participation of, among others, Chairwoman of the Main Council of the Confederation Lewiatan Henryka Bochniarz, founder of Selena Group and its CEO Krzysztof Domarecki, Board Member TVN Warner Bros. Discovery by Dorota Żurkowska, president of the management board of Kulczyk Investments Dawid Jakubowicz, the speakers differed in their assessment of the last eight years in the Polish economy. H. Bochniarz assessed that the business climate was deteriorating year by year, especially since between 2015 and 2022 the average duration of proceedings in district courts increased by 1.7 months (from 4 to 5.7 months), and in district courts by 1.1 months (from 8.4 to 9.5 months), the issue of resolving economic or labor law matters is even worse. Other speakers were rather milder in their assessments, but there was agreement that with the change of government, Poland's relations with other EU countries are improving very quickly and this is a great opportunity for the future.

Challenges for the economy

Issues of challenges for the Polish economy were also discussed during the panel devoted to macroeconomics. Ryszard Petru, MP for Poland 2050, pointed out that making macroeconomic decisions is more difficult today than 35 years ago due to the lack of social consensus. Prof. Grzegorz W. Kolodko drew attention to the need to maintain balance in social, economic and environmental issues when introducing reforms, and prof. Joanna Tyrowicz from the Monetary Policy Council emphasized the need to find solutions that will help adapt the Polish economy to the changing demographic situation.

During the Forum, the results of the annual competition for the most innovative Polish startups – LSE Pitch – were also announced. The winner of this year's edition was VitVio, its founders created the world's first platform that improves the functioning and safety of hospital operating rooms using artificial intelligence.

However, in behind-the-scenes conversations with LSO students, the subject of the elitism of their studies came up, also due to the costs of renting an apartment, and it is known that London is exceptionally expensive. Rental prices for a studio apartment start from PLN 2,000. British pounds per month.