On October 15, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine approved new conditions for admission to higher educational institutions for 2015.

According to Inna Sovsun, the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, the conditions for admission to higher education institutions for next year contain a number of innovations.

The system of accepting certificates of external independent evaluation has been changed, so universities will have the right to accept certificates of the current academic year only, and those applicants who took the external examination last year will have to re-register for the external examination again - in 2015.

Also, in 2015, the method of calculating the certificate score will change, namely, when calculating it, the "pass/fail" principle will be used, that is, those people who score less than the required number of points will not receive a certificate, and their points will not be converted into 200- point rating scale.

It should be noted that the admission conditions retain the rule for universities to set a minimum passing score, which in turn gives the right to "stronger" universities to set a higher passing score in order to simplify the process of processing applicants' documents, not accepting the documents of applicants with lower scores. Applicants who wish to enter a higher education institution should carefully familiarize themselves with the relevant information about passing scores, which will be posted on the websites of the educational institution.

In accordance with the Law "On Higher Education", the procedure for allocating state-ordered places was changed. Therefore, the applicant submits an application for passing the external examination, indicating the majors and indicating the universities in which he wishes to study. After passing external examinations and passing entrance exams, a rating list is automatically formed for each specialty. "State-ordered places will go to those universities that the applicants indicated in their applications," Inna Sovsun emphasized. - That is, budget places will not be awarded to higher education institutions, but to the strongest applicants."

But such a system will be fully operational from 2016. From 2015, there will be a transitional period for the introduction of this innovation. So, next year, before the start of the admissions campaign, higher education institutions will be provided with 80% of the same number of state order places as they had last year. The remaining 20% places that will remain in this specialty will be distributed according to the principle described above.

"The ultimate goal, which is laid down by the law on higher education, is that the places of the state order go to where the strongest applicants enter. Under these conditions, higher education institutions should consider what applicants will come to them, and be ready for 2016, because if they do not get any additional state order places from 20%, it means that they have serious problems, and they need either close, or merge, or otherwise work with applicants. Therefore, this transitional period is defined not so much for the state as for higher education institutions, so that they can find out whether they can apply for state-ordered places," Inna Sovsun emphasized.

We note that the acceptance of applicants' documents will begin on July 10 and end on August 1 at 10:00 a.m., and the lists of those recommended for enrollment will be published on August 2.

Also, an important innovation is that each applicant who has the right to submit 15 applications (three applications to five universities) must set the priority of each application. "For example, an applicant most wants to enter law school at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy - this is priority No. 1, and if he gets into this university based on his scores, then all his other applications are automatically canceled, and this person "does not hang around" in the lists and artificially does not stretch them. And if she does not get into "Mohylyanka", but the second priority is the application for admission, say, for the right to the university named after Franka, and she enters there, then the rest of her applications fall off the list, - the First Deputy Minister informed and added that the lists of those enrolled will be automatically formed after all applications have been submitted. - Because you are offered one place according to the highest of those priorities, according to which you come to the place of the state order. That is why students should take a very responsible approach to prioritizing their applications."

According to the material: Government portal