This country profile is part of a collective effort by the network members to map matching practices across Europe. If you find it useful and want to refer to it in your own work, please refer to it as “Kiselgof, Sofya (2011), Matching practices for universities – Ukraine, MiP Country Profile 4.”
Relevant country background
The education system in Ukraine includes public and private universities, but the best universities are public. Public universities have two types of seats: state-financed and open-enrollment seats. The difference between the two lies in the tuition fees: there is no tuition fee for state-financed seats, whereas the tuition fee for open-enrollment seats is about 1,200-2,000 EUR.
The number of state-financed seats is set by the Ministry of Education separately for each program at each university. There is no clear procedure for determining these numbers, but the idea is that there is a connection between the “demand” for these degrees and the number of state-financed seats. Capacities for open-enrollment seats are determined (mostly) freely by universities.
Ukraine has three levels of higher education: younger specialist, bachelor and specialist/ master. After completing secondary education, most students apply for bachelors programs. The information contained in this country profile concerns the admission procedure for bachelors programs at public universities.
The admission policy for both state-financed and open-enrollment seats in bachelors programs is defined by the Ministry of Education, but each university has some freedom in ranking applicants. Although all universities must take into account the results from the External Independent Test, some universities have the right to organize additional exams. For example, special “arts competitions” are organized for students applying for Arts and Musical programs.
Summary box
| Organization of higher education | Mostly public universities with both state-financed and open-enrollment seats. |
|---|---|
| Stated objectives of admissions policy | |
| Who’s in charge of admissions? | Ministry of Education and Science and universities |
| Admissions system in place since | 2008 |
| Available capacity | Number of state-financed seats is determined by the Ministry for each program, number of open-enrollment seats by universities |
| Timing of enrolment | 01.07 – 11.08 (state seats) – 25.08 (open-enrollment seats) |
| Information available to students prior to enrolment period | Historical information (lists of admitted students, score limits, etc) is available on the official website |
|
Restrictions on preference expression |
Student applies to max. 5 programs; students do not provide an ordering of these programs |
| Matching procedure | Semi-centralized procedure, equivalent to first three steps of the college-proposing deferred acceptance procedure |
| Priorities and quotas | Priorities are based on the External Independent Test results, and school marks. In some cases, universities are allowed to organize additional exams. Some students (with health problems, from Chernobyl area, orphans, etc.) are admitted before all other applicants. |
| Tie-breaking | There are almost no ties (because the range for the EIT results is large); there are several rules for tie-breaking. |
| Further special feature |
Description of current practices
Since 2008, all bachelors programs applicants must pass an External Independent Test. The results of the test are used both for getting the secondary school diploma and for university applications. Each applicant must pass the exam in “Ukrainian language and literature” and has the possibility to take tests in 5 other subjects. Each type of program requires a different set of subjects for an application.
From July 1 to July 31, each applicant applies to at most 5 bachelors programs at universities. Applications can be made either online via a centralized platform for all Ukrainian public universities, or directly at the university. Information about all current applicants (including names and grades) at each program is available online on the official site (http://vstup.info). Universities that have the right to organize additional exams accept applications until July 20 and then organize these exams from July 21 to July 31.
On August 1, each university publishes on the official site the lists of students accepted for each program (separately for state-financed and open-enrollment seats). Applicant may be accepted in two or more universities or programs simultaneously. All accepted applicants have 4 days to bring their original documents to one of the universities. On August 5, the updated lists of accepted students (including new ones following the rejection by students accepted earlier) are published. Those students, who were in the first wave lists and have not provided their original documents, lose the right to be admitted for state-financed seats at these programs (but they keep, in most cases, the right to be admitted for open-enrollment seats). If an applicant gave her documents to a university in the first stage, but was accepted at a preferred university in the second stage, she has the right to bring the documents from the less preferred university to the preferred one. The second stage ends on August 8, and before the “third stage” lists of accepted applicants are published. The third stage has the same rules as the second one. There’s no centralized procedure for filling the seats that remain empty after the third stage.
Performances
The resulting matching is definitely neither stable nor fair, and, furthermore, a significant number of seats remain empty after the end of the third stage. These seats are allocated through a decentralized procedure.
Existing data
http://vstup.info/ – official site for applicants where historical and up-to-date information for applicants is available.
Legal texts
Legal texts are available only in Ukrainian language at http://www.mon.gov.ua/