The Ministry of Education will discuss with the public proposals for improving the new list of specialties, but such proposals must be justified. This was emphasized by the Minister of Education and Science, Liliya Hrynevych, during a meeting on changes to the list of fields of knowledge and specialties for which higher education applicants are trained.

First Deputy Minister Inna Sovsun, people's deputies of Ukraine, representatives of the administration of the President of Ukraine, higher educational institutions, scientists, director of the higher education department of the Ministry of Education and Culture Oleg Sharov, head of the licensing and accreditation department of the Ministry of Education and Culture Andriy Shevtsov took part in this meeting.

The Minister of Education and Science noted that the new list of specialties caused a lively discussion in the information space, as well as in the academic environment. "We are not in the mood for a large-scale revision of the list, because a lot of work has been done on substantiation and argumentation of what the new list should be. At the same time, we are ready to find out where it is necessary to make changes to the list, because this issue becomes a barrier on the way to the development of certain areas of training," Liliya Hrynevych explained.

As Oleg Sharov, director of the higher education department of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine, recalled, on April 29, 2015, Resolution No. 266 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine was adopted, according to which a new list of specialties was introduced for the training of specialists of all educational degrees - from a junior bachelor to a doctor of philosophy. The order of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine dated November 6, 2015 No. 1151 introduced the rules for the transition of higher educational institutions from the old list of specialties and areas of training to new specialties.

In the conditions of admission to higher education institutions in 2016, requirements were established on how to carry out recruitment in 2016 according to the new list of specialties. Today, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine is approving changes to Order of the Ministry of Education and Culture No. 1151. These changes were adopted as a result of the public discussion that took place in the Ministry in February-March 2016. The Ministry considered the public's proposals for expanding the list of specialties according to three criteria. The first - the specialty should correspond to the profession, preferably not one, but several. Yes, today there are 9,000 professions, and only 115 specialties. Second, a specialty must have its own type of economic activity. Third, there should be a sufficient number of places on the labor market for this specialty.

As the expert in the field of education Volodymyr Kovtunets noted, the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" introduces a wide autonomy of higher educational institutions, and the wider the specialty, the greater the autonomy of the educational institution. One specialty license allows you to implement many educational programs. "This is the university's autonomy, which makes it possible to respond to the needs of the labor market. The introduction of new industries is a narrowing of autonomy," the expert believes.

After a wide discussion of the proposals, the meeting participants agreed on the changes being prepared by the Ministry of Education and Culture to the draft resolution on changes to the list of specialties. In particular, proposals for the inclusion of specialty 187 - "woodworking and furniture technologies", 194 - "hydraulic construction". Among the proposals for changes to the list are 12 fields of knowledge, where the specialty "cyber security" is renamed to "information security", the specialty "computer science and information technology" is divided into 2 specialties: 122 - "computer science" and 126 - "information systems and technologies". The 28th branch of knowledge "International relations" was also included in the draft of amendments to the resolution in three specialties: international relations, public communications and regional studies; International Economic Relations; international law. In addition, the word "Pedagogy" will be added to the name of the field "Educational Science".

Liliya Hrynevych instructed to create working groups to study other proposals regarding the list of specialties by areas. Thus, the newly created commissions will study the issue of the possibility of renaming "Earth Science" to the branch of knowledge "Geography. Geology", medical specialties in the field of medical rehabilitation, training of teachers in the profession of choreographer, field of knowledge "Water management", telecommunications. The issue of national security specialties will also be considered with the participation of relevant institutions and departments.