To make the university's state order for the master's degree in "Law" dependent on the results of the professional external examination, as well as to introduce this test at the end of the bachelor's degree, implementing the final state certification in the form of a single professional entrance test (EEVV). Such proposals were brought to the discussion by the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Liliya Hrynevych, during the presentation of the OSCE analytical study "The State of Legal Education in Ukraine".
The presented document analyzes the state of legal education in Ukraine through the assessment of the quality of educational services provided by higher education institutions and the quality of competencies obtained by graduates, analyzes the data of admission campaigns for the master's degree (2017 and partially 2016) and the law bachelor's degree (2013 and partially 2012) ). The key data for the study were, in particular, the results of the EFFV in the form of an external examination for the master's degree in the specialty 081 "Law" in 2017.
The minister emphasized that the introduction of independent external evaluation is a really important stage in the development of education policy in Ukraine.
"In 2016, the MES initiated a pilot project - an external independent exam for admission to a master's degree in Law, and in 2017 - extended this procedure to all universities that train lawyers. Thanks to this, we received not only an inoculation against corruption during admission to the master's program, but also a good knowledge test tool. Now we have substantiated results for the first time, which make it possible to measure the knowledge of bachelor's graduates who aspired to become master's degrees with one line, and we were able to conduct an in-depth study of these results," Liliya Hrynevych said.
She added that the preparation of educational policies by the Ministry currently lacked quality research that could be relied upon.
"And in this sense, we received just a treasure. I'm sorry, but many decisions will be unpopular, and often they will cause outrage in the communities. But when these changes are fair, when they are based on specific data, then they cause less resistance - everyone can verify the fairness of such decisions," the Minister emphasized.
It is assumed that the proposals will help to improve the quality of legal education, and will also help to concentrate state procurement in the best universities.
"The results of this study give us reason to do the following. First, to respond to the formation of a state order for a master's degree in "Law". What are we currently guided by during the distribution of the state order for master's degrees - the needs of universities. And in this regard, let's take the results of this study as a basis for the criteria for the allocation of state contracts for legal education next year," suggested Liliya Hrynevych.
The next issue is the correspondence of the "red" diplomas awarded to bachelor graduates with the real knowledge of the students.
"Now about our "red" diplomas. We had a similar story with school gold medals, until the after-school examination became part of the State Final Certification. The situation has leveled off. Now the gold medalists are those who pass the external examination well. I understand that this is more money, but we have to include this exam at the end of the bachelor's degree. And then, based on the results of this exam, we will finance and accredit higher education institutions," the Minister emphasized.
She also singled out the problem of critical thinking test scores at classical universities, where their best students performed very poorly, according to the study.
Also, according to the Minister, the judicial system will not be changed as long as legal education remains in its current state.
"Believe me, everyone who reads this study, including the heads of very good educational institutions, will be able to find room to improve the quality of work in their universities. Unfortunately, some heads of universities did not come today, although they were invited. Mostly, these are people who head universities for which "Law" is not a leading specialty, and they are not classical universities either. For such institutions, legal education is often only a source of earning money. However, even if they don't, it's clear that they should at least read the research. We are ready to talk honestly about problems, to find ways to solve them, even if they are difficult. Therefore, perhaps, many people should think about focusing instead of legal specialties on what they succeed in the most," emphasized Liliya Hrynevych.
