I'm currently researching two main topics: the causes and consequences of student funding policies, and organisational stratification in higher education. Additionally, I am developing the Student Support and Fees Dataset on a continuous basis.

In the current research project funded by FORTE, I study how student support and tuition fee systems in different countries are associated with student welfare, and whether this has consequences for higher education participation.

Additionally, I work on the topic of stratification of tertiary education in Europe, asking how and why institutions within countries differ in terms of funding and prestige. During my doctorate, I investigated inequalities in access to higher education in Poland and Australia, within the context of rising enrolments and system stratification.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• The financial dimension of organizational stratification in European higher education

  2024. Krzysztof Czarnecki, Petra Sauer. International Journal of Comparative Sociology

  Article

  This article contributes to the knowledge on organizational stratification in higher education by exploring its financial dimension in 21 European countries over the period 2013–2017. Cross-country differences in the inequality of revenues among higher education institutions are considerable. Decomposing inequality indices shows that they are related to the various degrees of institutional diversity in size, research activity, and subject specialization. Financial stratification is higher in countries where revenues are more unequally distributed among universities involved in research, especially those with a broad disciplinary focus. This inequality is in turn driven by the role of third-party funding in higher education financing.

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• More funding, more students? Student funding policies and tertiary education enrolment ratios in 32 high-participation countries

  2025. Krzysztof Czarnecki, Tomas Korpi. Higher Education

  Article

  Participation in tertiary education has grown dramatically in recent decades, and the distribution of the costs for degrees between students, families and states has consequently become an intensely debated policy issue in many countries. Despite these international trends, substantial cross-country differences in both participation and funding persist. Student funding systems can include many different components, but a key distinction typically is between (a) repayable student loans and (b) non-repayable grants. Assessments of the relationship between funding policies and participation in tertiary education have largely focused on evaluating the impact of specific components or used crude expenditure data, providing a circumscribed picture of the transition to mass participation. Using unique information from the Student Support and Fees Dataset, we expand on existing research by providing macro-level evidence on the relationship between levels and changes in student funding packages and tertiary education enrolment ratios—as measures of participation—in 32 High Participation Systems between 2006 and 2021. The results from pooled OLS analyses with time fixed effects as well as within-between random effects panel regression show that student funding policy does not seem to influence enrolment ratios. An important exception is found in countries where tertiary credentials have started to become a social norm, that is when the proportion of the labour force with tertiary credentials exceeds approx. 38%. Beyond that point, non-repayable student funding starts to matter for further increases in enrolments.

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Show all publications by Krzysztof Czarnecki at Stockholm University