The knowledge base of Ukraine and the human resource basis of the economy

 

Ukraine inherited a relatively well-developed education system form the Soviet area, which still preserves some positive features with an emphasis on mathematics and natural sciences at school level. However, serious concerns have risen as to the quality of S&T education since the early 1990s.

 

Although the Ukrainian education system seems to be chronical underfinanced¹²⁶, almost all major indicators such as share of public expenditures for education in % of GDP or in % of the public budget show Ukraine in a comparatively favourable position.¹²⁷ This contradiction can be partially explained by the relatively low absolute financial allocation, which might not be sufficient to maintain the comprehensive system of education in a country as big as Ukraine. It could indicate, however, inefficiencies within the system too. For instance, in elementary schools around 600 teaching hours are taught per school year, which is 100 - 200 teaching hours less than in the majority of European countries.

 

 

126 https://www.liportal.de/ukraine/gesellschaft/#c4543: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

127 http://www.kooperation-international.de/buf/ukraine/bildungs-forschungs-und-nnovationslandschaft/bildungslandschaft.html: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

In particular, schools and vocational schools are lacking technical equipment. Curricula are still partly based on Soviet style patterns and teaching approaches and have to be continuously adapted to new requirements. Teachers receive low salaries, which causes high levels of corruption, both in primary and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions (e.g. trade with diplomas and titles, ghost writing, awarding of performance).¹²⁸

 

At the positive side it seems, that education for handicapped pupils as well as promotion of giftedness receives more attention than previously. Moreover, efforts to improve the access to education in rural areas are implemented.¹²⁹

 

Ukraine has compulsory schooling for children usually at the age of six or seven years (depending on the choice of the parents).The pre-tertiary educational system in Ukraine comprises a minimum of 12 years. School education is organised along three levels: primary school (three or four years), lower secondary school and upper secondary school. The school system became highly diversified in the 1990s. Different types of schools, such as gymnasia, lycйes and colleges emerged, which aimed at providing a more specialised secondary school education (e.g. with emphasis on languages or mathematics). Also private run schools are licensed.¹³⁰

 

During Soviet times, industrial corporations practically ‘owned’ the system of vocational education. Due to the decline of many fabrics and enterprises, the number of vocational educational institutes and colleges, assigned to these companies, demised. Today, vocational education is structured in three levels: elementary vocational education at no charge; a further four-year long training for which no higher education entrance level is necessary and, thirdly, higher vocational education for engineering professions at universities.¹³¹

 

University enrolment in Ukraine is very high. Around 80% of 19-25 year-olds Ukrainians are enrolled in universities.¹³² With its 2.35m students enrolled, Ukraine belongs to the group of five countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which together represent slightly more than 54 % of the total tertiary student’s population in the EHEA.¹³³ Most of the university students in Ukraine are aiming to receive a Master diploma. The fraction of students enrolled at ISCED 6 level, which are programmes that lead directly to the award of an advanced research qualification (e.g. PhD), is considerably lower in Ukraine (1.52%) than overall in the EHEA (2.7%), which indicates a rather low interest to pursue a scientific career.

 

Higher education attainment levels are steadily rising in the EHEA. The Bologna median value is 37.3 % for the 25-34 age group, 29.4 % for the 35-44 year olds and 22.9 % for the 45-64 age group. This increasing tertiary attainment according to age is the dominating pattern in almost all Bologna countries. Ukraine has a high level of tertiary education attainment. In the youngest age group, higher education attainment has reached 50 % in Ukraine (as well as in Cyprus, Ireland and Lithuania). Higher education attainment is the lowest (less than 20 %) in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Comparing 2013 median levels of unemployment ratios¹³⁴ shows that the general expectation remains true, that the higher the level of education is, the lower is the unemployment ratio. The EHEA median of unemployment ratios for young people with low educational attainment (at most lower secondary education) is 17.7 %, while for those with medium educational attainment (at most post-secondary non-tertiary education) it is 10.4 %, while it is 7.6 % for the highly educated with tertiary education. According to the Bologna Report 2015, however, Ukraine is different. In Ukraine the unemployment ratio of people aged 20-34 with higher education attainment is slightly higher (8.0%) than for people of the same age cohort with medium educational attainment (6.7%), albeit unemployment rates for both are at a comparatively low level. Also unemployment of people aged 20-34 with higher education attainment was faster increasing during 2008 and 2013 in Ukraine (+4.9%) than for people of the same age cohort

 

128 https://www.liportal.de/ukraine/gesellschaft/#c4543: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

129 http://www.kooperation-international.de/buf/ukraine/bildungs-forschungs-und-innovationslandschaft/bildungslandschaft.html: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

130 https://www.liportal.de/ukraine/gesellschaft/#c4543: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

131 https://www.liportal.de/ukraine/gesellschaft/#c4543: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

132 UNESCO Science Report 2015.

 

133 Bologna Process Implementation Report 2015.

 

134 The unemployment ratio is calculated as the share of the unemployed at the total population of a given educational attainment level and age group.

 

with medium educational attainment (+1.2%), which indicates a limited absorption capacity of the Ukrainian economy for persons with tertiary education attainment. In this respect, however, Ukraine is not an exception within the EHEA. The labour force with tertiary education was 36% in Ukraine during 2009-2012.¹³⁵

 

The gap between the unemployment ratios of young people with high and low educational attainment is also different for women and men. When looking at the EHEA region as a whole for the year 2013, the difference is pronounced in the case of young people with low educational attainment, while the unemployment ratios of young women and men were nearly identical among the highly educated. In Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, however, young males with higher education attainment have had a higher unemployment ratio than young males with lower levels of education.¹³⁶

 

Ukraine also belongs to the countries with the highest share of over-qualification (32.9%), defined as the percentage of young people with tertiary education occupying a job position which is not traditionally regarded as necessitating a tertiary qualification (i.e. occupation level 4 to 9 according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations [ISCO]). The countries with the highest over-qualification rates (above 30 %) were Albania (45 %), Cyprus (39.7 %), Spain (38.8%), Ireland (36.9 %), Turkey (35.2 %), Greece (34.1 %), Bulgaria (33.3 %) and Ukraine (32.9 %).¹³⁷ This also indicates that the absorption of the Ukrainian economy for highly-educated is limited.

 

The biggest differences between female and male over-qualification rates are on the one hand in Albania, Ukraine, Switzerland, Turkey and Austria (with higher over-qualification rates for men) and on the other hand in Finland, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Italy (with higher over-qualification rates for women).