This year's high school graduates are facing one of the most important decisions of their young lives. After taking their Matura exams, it is time for secondary school and former technical school students to choose whether and where they want to continue their education. The choice is enormous: there are more than 400 state and private universities in Poland alone. Each of them offers several to even dozens of fields of study.

Nowadays, everyone interested can find something for themselves. Chancellors and deans are competing to create an academic offer tailored to the needs of 21st-century students. Every year, new universities open, and some close, but despite this, the same names are present in the annual ranking of world universities.

The Center for World University Rankings is a prominent consulting organisation and publisher of the largest academic ranking of global universities. Its annual report is eagerly anticipated not only by students but also by lecturers, university authorities, and employers. On May 13, 2024, the organisation published the results for 2024.

The list opens with the top three American universities: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University. Also included in the top 10 are the UK's Cambridge and Oxford, as well as the US's Princeton, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Yale, and the California Institute of Technology. American universities dominate the ranking, with 49 in the top 100 alone.

The rankings of the top 2,000 universities worldwide would be incomplete without including Polish universities. Notably, Jagiellonian University holds the 386th position, followed by Warsaw University at 421st place. AGH University of Science and Technology from Kraków secures the 637th position, while the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences holds the 753rd place. Just two spots lower is the Warsaw University of Technology at 755th place. The Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan claims the 851st spot, followed by the National Centre for Nuclear Research at 878th place.

The Wroclaw Medical University takes the 893rd place, with the Medical University of Warsaw following closely at 897th place. The University of Wroclaw secures the 900th spot, followed by the Medical University of Lodz at 999th place. The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun holds the 1003rd place, and the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology secures the 1042nd position.

The Medical University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Silesia are ranked 1080th and 1131st, respectively. The Karol Marcinkowski Medical University in Poznan occupies the 1203rd position, while the University of Silesia is in the 1271st place. Five positions lower, at 1276th, is the Silesian University of Technology. The Gdańsk University of Technology is ranked 1301st, and the University of Łódź is six places lower, at 1307th.

The Warsaw University of Life Sciences is ranked 1311th, and the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Institute of Oncology - National Research Institute is at 1364th. The Technical University of Łódź holds the 1397th position, and the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin is ranked 1438th. The Medical University of Lublin is in 1476th place. The Poznan University of Technology occupies the 1522nd position, and the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn is at 1531st.

The Poznan University of Life Sciences is ranked 1570th, and the Maria Skłodowska-Curie University in Lublin is 1619th. The Medical University of Bialystok is in 1648th place, and the University of Agriculture in Kraków is ranked 1730th, 38 places higher than the University of Zielona Góra, which is at 1768th.

The Wroclaw University of Life Sciences holds the 1840th position, two places above the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which is at 1842nd. The Mathematical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences is ranked 1871st, just above the Kraków University of Technology at 1872nd.

The West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin is fourth from the bottom at 1899th. The University of Bialystok is third from the bottom with a ranking of 1904th. The Polish Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences holds the penultimate place among Polish universities, ranked 1931st, and the University of Rzeszów is ranked last among Polish universities, at 1958th.