The city leadership is committed to utilising higher education as a key asset in Wroclaw’s development. The large and fragmented higher education sector consists of 30 higher education institutions that serve more than 140 000 students and produce 20 000 graduates in public higher education institutions alone. In 2005, a year after Poland’s accession to the EU, the unemployment rate in the Wroclaw metro area was in double digits, with the rate of 10.9% for the city and 17.3% for the largest neighbouring district.