This year, the number of changes made to the Conditions of admission to universities before the admission campaign is the smallest in recent years. This was emphasized by the Director General of the Directorate of Higher Education and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture Oleg Sharov during the regional meeting regarding the 2018 admission campaign and changes in the Admission Conditions. A series of such meetings will be held from June 18 to 21 in Kyiv, Odessa, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipro, and Kharkiv.
"The number of changes made to the Terms of Admission this year at the end of spring is minimal in recent years. And in order to inform educational institutions about them, it would be possible to limit oneself to an explanatory letter from the Ministry of Education and Culture, but it is still necessary to answer the questions that have accumulated in the admissions commissions. That is why we decided to hold the second round of regional meetings - traditionally, before the start of the introductory campaign," Oleg Sharov said.
He noted that the adjustments are due to 5 main reasons:
– changes in higher level legislation
- expansion of opportunities where there were certain limitations
- elimination of legal uncertainty
- technical corrections
- harmonization with the EDEBO interface
"I would like to point out that as a result of these changes, no significant legal norm has been narrowed. This is fundamental. And it is also very important that there were no changes at all in the terms of the introductory campaign: everything was written in the Terms initially - hour by hour," the head of the directorate emphasized.
As for corrections, he cited as an example the change to the Law on Higher Education. It was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada at the end of last year, simultaneously with the adoption of the budget. It stipulates that fixed volumes of state orders are established for all state universities of Luhansk and Donetsk regions - regardless of their sphere of administration. Previously, such volumes were established only for those institutions of higher education that are under the management of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The expansion of opportunities took place, in particular, due to the fact that universities were allowed not to set a creative credit - it was introduced this year for a number of specialties instead of a creative competition. Therefore, from now on, creative credit is an opportunity, not an obligation of a higher education institution.
Another innovation is the admission to master's degrees of the results of the Unified entrance exam in a foreign language, which is conducted using the technology of external examinations for admission to law and a number of humanities specialties, to any other specialty. The decision on such enrollment will be made by the admissions committee.
A significant change is the awarding of points for special achievements to the prize-winners and winners of the European and World Championships, winners of the championships of Ukraine in Olympic sports. The "Bonus" will be valid only in the case of admission to the "Secondary Education (Physical Culture)" and "Physical Culture and Sports" specialties. In this case, 10 points will be added to the competition score. Such entrants need to submit applications in paper form so that the admissions commissions can check the documents confirming their right to receive additional points. If the admission commissions have doubts about this, they should contact the Ministry of Youth and Sports for confirmation.
A comprehensive presentation on the changes in the Terms of Admission for 2018 can be found at the link.
"I want to personally thank our legislators and the Government for the fact that we are gradually coming to a culture where large-scale changes are made to admissions, but the Admissions Conditions are not broken at the knee, and the changes take effect from next year's admissions campaign. For example, this was the case with the decision of the CMU regarding the priority enrollment in the budget to medical and pedagogical universities of those entrants who will sign an agreement on working in rural areas. The document was adopted on May 30, but it will enter into force on January 1, 2019 and will be effective from the 2019 introductory campaign. Now its implementation would be simply impossible, because the cycle for priority enrollment must start from the beginning of the year," Oleg Sharov noted.
He also reminded that earlier changes were made to the Conditions of admission for a junior specialist and MES experts also held a series of regional meetings on this matter. They took place at the end of May.
After the regional meetings of the Ministry of Education and Culture, webinars will be held by Inforesurs, which is the operator of the EDEBO - the database through which applicants' applications are registered. Webinars are scheduled to be held from June 25 to 27.
