This presentation of the NORPOL seminar includes the following topics: funding mechanisms, increasing financial self-reliance of academic institutions, external and internal privatization of HE, market forces and Polish educational policies. In terms of funding mechanisms, both public and private institutions in 2007 obtained the vast majority of income from teaching. For public institutions, teaching provides 83 percent of income, for private ones – 93 percent. Income obtained from research is 13.6 percent in the case of public institutions and 1.4 percent in the case of private institutions. In general terms, the private sector is almost fully a teaching sector and for most private institutions, research is a marginal activity both in terms of academic mission and in terms of sources of funding. In terms of subjects offered, private institutions were more active in responding to new demands of the labor market (and of students themselves) in the first half of the 1990s – when public institutions were still unable to respond to emergent market realities – but many of them have been offering poorly taught and undemanding degrees.