Student protesters in Poland are using direct action to force universities to make small – but significant – changes
Poland’s radical student movement has become increasingly effective in fighting for change, writes philosopher and academic Mikołaj Ratajczak in an op-ed for the leftist site Krytyka Polityczna.
Protesters are securing not just practical concessions like improved housing and canteens, but also sparking a wider conversation about the role of universities in an increasingly neoliberal environment.
Since early summer, the University of Warsaw’s main building has been occupied by a group of students demanding affordable accommodation, a meal they can buy on campus and a say in what their education looks like. The occupation is the third in a string of direct actions organised by a relatively new but impressively focused movement.
In December 2023, students at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań took over Jowita, an ageing dormitory threatened with closure. Jowita was symbolic: many students relied on its accommodation, but the university planned to sell or demolish the building, without any guarantee that housing elsewhere would remain affordable.
So students moved in, stayed put, and forced the authorities to promise repairs and a halt to evictions.
Then came Kamionka, a dormitory of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, occupied in May 2024. Students camped out, brought in supporters and made themselves impossible to ignore. Once again, authorities backed down, promising renovations.
Now, in Warsaw, students want more than just a single dorm fixed up. They want public canteens restored – places to eat on campus, cheap enough that students don’t have to choose between lunch and rent. They want dormitories maintained as public goods, not closed and outsourced. And they want university managers and ministries to understand that student life is not separate from education but the very condition that makes study possible.
Their method is as important as their message. They occupy, but they also organise: printing texts, running meetings, inviting lecturers to hold classes inside the protest space. They see themselves not as radicals in the margins but as caretakers of what public education should be. They have already achieved some success. The University of Warsaw’s rector has committed to opening a canteen in the Library building – a symbolic step, but a concrete one.
Polish public universities are officially free, but students know that tuition-free degrees do not mean equal access. Housing shortages, hidden fees and daily costs make studying impossible for many.
At a moment where Poland’s political winds threaten privatisation in the sector, these students are making clear that the university’s future is a question of public interest, not just individual ambition. And they are doing so with a clarity that has already forced authorities to negotiate, showing that radical student action – far from being a relic of the past – may yet shape what Poland and its universities will become.
Original article (“Radykalny ruch studencki coraz skuteczniej walczy o przyszłość polskich uniwersytetów”) by Mikołaj Ratajczak was first published in Polish on 27 June 2025.
It’s available here.
Krytyka Polityczna is a Polish leftist publication and activist network focusing on progressive politics and culture.
