What will become of us? : studies in political science and related fields in 2020 perspective

Dynamic increase in the number of students was one of the most significant process in higher education after 1989 in Poland, very well seen in humanities and social sciences programs of studies, especially in political science. It is worth to mention that there were 4 thousand students of political science in academic year 1990/91, and till the academic year of 2004/05 the number increased and reached near 56 thousand, and then it started to fall rapidly to 10 thousand in 2014/15. At the same time due to demographic crisis and decreasing number of 19‑year‑olds there have been fewer candidates to study in general, including political science. Similar processes has been observed also in related fields, such as international relations, security studies, journalism and social communication, and European studies. The article is an attempt to present predictions of future changes in the number of political studies students’ population till the year 2020, together with the possible consequences of this state of affairs for political science and related fields.