Creation of the concept of reforming legal education, which will determine the national standard and make it possible to introduce a single state qualification exam for lawyers, is a priority of the working group on the preparation of reforming legal education in Ukraine. This was discussed at the working meeting of the group at the Ministry of Education and Science on June 6. It included representatives of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, USAID and independent experts.

"In the coming months, we should finish the development and coordinate the concept of reforming legal education with the public, universities and the expert environment. It is on the basis of this concept that a national standard and a state qualification exam for lawyers should be developed. I am convinced that this is exactly what the working group's efforts should be directed to," said the Minister of Education and Science, Liliya Hrynevych.

Among the debatable issues that should be brought up for discussion by the expert environment, there remains the issue of introducing a standard for legal education at the "bachelor" level or introducing an end-to-end master's program, as it is in the training of doctors.

Separately, they raised the issue of the quality of legal training and the unification of requirements for students during their studies and qualification determination.

"It is necessary to emphasize the quality of legal education and introduce uniform qualification requirements for all students of law schools. We need to overcome the situation that has arisen today, when the huge resources of the state, universities and citizens are wasted without results, because very few graduates of law faculties work in their profession", - stressed Andrii Boyko, a member of the Higher Council of Justice of Ukraine.

For their part, representatives of the USAID "Fair Justice" program expressed their full support for the interagency working group.

"We believe that this is a very important project for reforming Ukrainian education and Ukraine in general, therefore, until the expiration of the Fair Justice program, we are ready to provide logistical, financial and expert support in this work," said the head of the project of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Fair Justice by David Michael Vaughn.

During the meeting, the issue of the readiness of higher education institutions and the Ukrainian Center for Evaluation of the Quality of Education to conduct the first pilot project in Ukraine to introduce entrance exams in the form of external examinations for a master's degree in law was also discussed.

We will remind you that in July 2016, the Ministry of Education and Science, together with 9 universities and with the support of the Coordinator of OSCE projects in Ukraine, the project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) "Fair Justice" conducted a pilot project on the introduction of entrance exams in the form of external examinations for the master's degree in law . It is planned that about 3,000 bachelors will take part in it.