Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyy spoke about the new rules for postgraduate studies in 2024, as the number of male students of military age has rapidly increased.
According to the minister's Facebook post, the innovations include
- a unified entrance exam is being abandoned;
- the passing score in the general academic competence test will be 160 and is mandatory for admission to the entrance exams of an institution;
- a foreign language is required for admission to a master's degree programme, but is not required for admission to a postgraduate degree programme;
- only part-time or evening students will be able to enrol in postgraduate studies on a contract basis, which do not give the right to deferment;
- The Ministry of Education will prioritise full-time education. The number of state-funded places will increase from 3,200 to 7,000.
- The head of the Ministry of Education said that before the start of the full-scale war, about 7-8,000 people were enrolled in postgraduate programmes (state-funded and contract) every year on the basis of exams directly at higher education institutions and research institutions.
"This year, we introduced a mandatory test for admission to postgraduate studies - the Unified Entrance Exam. And so, in 2024, a total of 246,189 people registered to take the Unified Entrance Exam. 79% of them are men, almost half of whom are applying for postgraduate studies. More specifically, 91,561 people. This is a record of all records," said Lisovyy.
The minister stressed that "the education system has become such a "hole" for evasion" and this indicates "symptoms of its neglect", so the ministry has now launched a comprehensive transformation.
Lisovyy also called for all cases of fake education to be reported to law enforcement agencies.