Clarification of the Department of Economics and Financing regarding the reimbursement of funds from the state or local budget spent on the payment of specialist training services in higher education institutions.

According to the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine dated May 5, 2017 No. 07010-07-10/12304, the funds reimbursed in accordance with the Procedure are credited to the budget income classification code 24060300 "Other income".

In accordance with the "Procedure for reimbursement of funds from the state or local budget spent on the payment of specialist training services", the reimbursement value is determined on the basis of information on the implementation of the passport of the budget program for the previous calendar year (previous calendar years). Since the specified information for 2019 is not available as of September 1, 2019, reimbursement for the II semester of the 2018/2019 academic year for students who were expelled from higher education institutions belonging to the sphere of management of the Ministry of Education and Culture, it is expedient to carry out on the basis of the passport of the budget program for 2019 year under the budget program 2201160 "Training of personnel by higher educational institutions of the III-IV level of accreditation and ensuring the operation of their practice bases".

According to the established procedure, the student's expulsion is carried out after the head of the relevant institution of higher education approves the order on his expulsion, followed by changes to the EDEBO. This requires time, the implementation of certain organizational actions, and sometimes the involvement of other institutions and organizations (for example, obtaining the consent of the juvenile service).

In such a case, if the student wrote an application for expulsion before the beginning of the academic year and did not start classes, the effect of the Order does not apply to him, regardless of the date of approval by the higher educational institution of the order to expel such a student. The responsibility for timely and correct changes to the EDEBO rests with the management of the higher educational institution.

From January 31, 2017, the provisions of the Procedure regarding the obligation to refund funds even if the student of higher education dropped out of the higher educational institution at the previous place of study before the beginning of the semester control came into force. In such a case, the person must reimburse in full the cost of 30 credits of the transfer and accumulation system, regardless of the actual duration of studies during the last academic semester. Thus, according to the Procedure, if students are expelled in the middle of the academic semester, for example, from March 1 or June 15, he reimburses the funds for the II semester of the corresponding academic year in full.

The specified provision of the Procedure does not apply to persons who were deducted before the entry into force of this norm, that is, before January 31, 2017.

Please note that on August 9, 2019, the Law of Ukraine "On Vocational Pre-Higher Education" entered into force, which does not provide for the reimbursement of funds from the state or local budget spent on the payment of services for the training of vocational pre-higher education applicants.

In addition, taking into account that the free acquisition of a complete general secondary education is a constitutional guarantee, persons who were enrolled in state (municipal) institutions to obtain the educational level of a junior specialist under a state (regional) order on the basis of basic secondary education, do not reimburse the funds of the state ( local) budget for the first two years of study (for the period of obtaining a full general secondary education).

In order to observe the rights of persons to obtain higher education, to prevent the occurrence of conflict situations, and considering that the first part of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" does not contain a list of categories of persons to whom the Order does not apply, we ask the heads of higher educational institutions to provide advance information entrants, students, and their parents regarding the application of the Procedure".