The system of higher education

 

In terms of post-secondary institutions, which are allowed to grant higher degrees, institutions with different ranks are distinguished from each other in Ukraine according to the qualifications granted, and by the academic qualifications of teaching and research staff.¹³⁸.

 

· Institutions accredited Rank I subsume general vocational and technical high schools providing vocational training and final examination.

 

· Institutions accredited Rank II subsume various colleges, affiliated faculties and institutions with similar classification.

 

· Institutions with Rank III and IV are institutes, universities, conservatories and academies depending on the result of the accreditation¹³⁹

 

According to Kovбcs, the first rank consists from post-secondary small and highly specialized institutions, which are designed to provide vocational education finishing with the Junior Specialist diploma. They have to provide qualifications for the supply of lower occupational tasks (e.g. assistant pharmacist). The training time is usually 1-3 years. The colleges and affiliated faculties from the second rank comprise medium size institutions, which are providing professional and vocational education in various levels according to their accreditation (e.g. at Junior Specialist level and some of them even at Bachelor level). Rank I and rank II institutions are not university-type institutions.

 

The third rank consists of small, mono-disciplinary university-level institutions, which do not conduct R&D and who are not entitled to grant PhDs. The fourth rank comprises large scale, traditional universities offering programs from low to advanced levels. They also conduct R&D and are entitled to grant PhDs¹⁴⁰. Rank III institutions provide a higher degree (bachelor or specialist), which ensures professional training for the students having a secondary school-leaving exam. The study length is usually 4-5 years. The Rank IV universities ensure professional and scientific education for the students having a secondary

 

135 UNESCO Science Report 2015.

 

136 Bologna Process Implementation Report 2015.

 

137 Ibid.

 

138 Kovбcs, Klбra (no year): the Bologna Process in Ukraine. http://www.academia.edu/3500678/The_Bologna_Process_in_Ukraine: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

139 Orosz 2005, pp. 54-59; Cited in Kovбcs, Klбra (no year): the Bologna Process in Ukraine. http://www.academia.edu/3500678/The_Bologna_Process_in_Ukraine, p.4.

 

140 https://www.daad.de/laenderinformationen/ukraine/land/de/5492-hochschul-und-bildungswesen/: accessed on 6 May 2016.

 

school-leaving exam and who passed the university entry examination. Usual training time is 5-6 years.¹⁴¹

 

Rank IV institutions receive the highest budget allocations from the state and have the highest number of students, despite the introduction of student fees, which are levied for 75% of all study places. The level of the study fees is comparatively high and depends on the study programme and the diploma.¹⁴²

 

In general one can distinguish in Ukraine the following tertiary education diplomas: Junior specialist, Bachelor, Specialist or Master, Aspirant (PhD training), Candidate of Science (which is comparable to a PhD)¹⁴³, and Doctor of Science (which is comparable to a habilitation).

 

In Ukraine, the Bachelor programmes are usually 4 years long, but they hardly qualify for jobs. Therefore, most university students strive for a higher diploma. According to Kovбcz, one can find on one side academic second stage programmes with low practical value, and on the other side, there are vocational, practice-oriented programmes, with low academic curricular emphasis, which makes mobility between stages and study programmes difficult. In addition, there is the question of who will get a Specialist degree (which is still mostly applied to vocational-oriented studies) and who will get a Master degree after the fifth year.¹⁴⁴

 

Since the mid-2000s the share of students studying humanities and the arts has grown by 5% and in social sciences, business and law by as much as 45%. On the other hand, the share of graduates in natural sciences, with the exception of agriculture, health care and services, has shrunk by one-quarter and in technical sciences by more than one-fifth since the mid-2000s.¹⁴⁵

 

It is noticeable, that in 2012 the share of university graduates in natural sciences was already considerable lower (5.3%) than for instance in Germany (12.6%). This is caused by the fact that the demand for degrees in some technical disciplines has declined, especially in industry, after graduates were unable to find a job suited to their qualifications.

 

The structural socio-economic and ideological transformation of the higher education system after the independence of Ukraine was accompanied with an orientation towards the Bologna process during the last 10 years. In May 2005, Ukraine signed the Bergen Declaration, thus officially joining the EHEA (European Higher Education Area). In the academic year 2006-2007 ECTS was introduced in every institution of higher education ranked III-IV. The adoption of Bologna and especially ECTS, however, was often criticised by Ukrainian professors, which suspected a “de-intellectualisation process”.

 

In 2008 a new type of entry system to the universities was introduced, according to which every student intending to study in a higher education institution must take an advanced level exam in Ukrainian in an independent centre providing maturity exams and entrance exams. This decision, however, affected negatively the main national minorities.¹⁴⁶

 

According to Kovбcz, one of the most important problems is the imperfect monitoring of the reform objectives. The value of the introduced formal changes and of the high-sounding modernisation strategies, which have been proclaimed throughout the pre-Maidan revolution years, remains uncertain if the supervision of the implementation of the reform elements is not solved.

 

Despite the often unclear reform of the curricular system in Ukraine, which aggravates Ukraine’s higher education system alignment within the EHEA, and which also seems to offer several opportunities to

 

 

141 Orosz 2005, p. 54; Cited in Kovбcs, Klбra (no year): the Bologna Process in Ukraine. http://www.academia.edu/3500678/The_Bologna_Process_in_Ukraine, p.4.

 

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

 

143 The Soviet Candidate of Science, however, must not hold a master’s degree but also count no fewer than five publications to his or her name. The Soviet Doctor of Science must be a Candidate of Science with substantial scientific expertise and at least 20 international publications (see footnote 17 of the UNESCO Science Report 2015).

 

144 Kovбcs, Klбra (no year): the Bologna Process in Ukraine. http://www.academia.edu/3500678/The_Bologna_Process_in_Ukraine

145 UNESCO Science Report 2015.

 

146 Kovбcs, Klбra (no year):: the Bologna Process in Ukraine. http://www.academia.edu/3500678/The_Bologna_Process_in_Ukraine

 

introduce incidents of corruption¹⁴⁷, Ukraine belongs to those countries of the EHEA with the highest annual public expenditure on tertiary education (around 2%). The Ukrainian share is only below the level the Nordic countries (ranging from 2 % of GDP in Sweden to 2.4 % of GDP in Denmark). In comparison, annual public expenditure on tertiary education is the lowest and below 1 % of GDP in Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.¹⁴⁸

 

Also in terms of public expenditure for tertiary education in % of all public expenditures, Ukraine belongs to the EHEA countries allocating a high share of public budget to tertiary education expenditure. This share of Ukraine was even increasing since 2005 from 4.1% to 4.6% in 2011. Within the EHEA, only Norway spends a larger share of its public budget to tertiary education (4.83 %) in 2011, followed by Ukraine (4.64 %), Cyprus (4.56 %), Denmark (4.23 %) and Switzerland (4.08 %). There are a few countries that devote less than 2 % of their public funding to tertiary education, such as Croatia (1.94 %), Bulgaria (1.82 %), Italy (1.67 %) and Azerbaijan (1.06 %).¹⁴⁹

 

Nearly 81 % of the 2.35m Ukrainian students are enrolled in theoretically-based programmes (ISCED level 5A) in the first two cycles, which corresponds to the EHEA average, while 15.1 % are enrolled in programmes that are more occupationally specific (ISCED level 5B; e.g. universities of applied sciences) (compared to 15.6% at EHEA average). ¹⁵⁰

 

Compared to the overall trend in other countries of the EHEA, Ukraine has a high share of part-time students. In six countries (Poland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Hungary; Slovakia and Croatia), more than 85 % of higher education part-time students are aged between 30 and 34, although in case of Ukraine the share of the older age-group of students is less than 10% of all students, which is a comparatively low value. However, also in the younger age-group of students, 44.5% belong to the group of part-time students in Ukraine. This is the highest share within the EHEA followed by Poland (37.2 %), Sweden (29.7 %) and Azerbaijan (25.3 %).¹⁵¹

 

More than 46,000 Ukrainian citizens are studying abroad¹⁵². Among the most preferred countries for studying abroad are Poland, Germany, Russia, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, USA, Spain, France, Australia and UK, with the highest growth rate dynamics in Poland.¹⁵³ According to the INCO NET EaP Country Report (updated 2015) more than 63,000 foreign students are enrolled in Ukraine. They come mostly from Turkmenistan, China, Russia, India and Jordan.¹⁵⁴

 

Despite the increasing outward student mobility to EU, Ukraine is practically not yet fully integrated in the EHEA and the Bologna system. This can be evidenced from the level of study recognition. While recognition of credits seems to be a common practice in the majority of EHEA countries, only 27% of Ukrainian students (second lowest after Armenia with 26%), who have been enrolled abroad have seen their credits gained abroad recognised, while it was the case for 75% of students in France, the Netherlands and Denmark. Moreover, the share of students who do not get any recognition of credits seems to be relatively high in Armenia, Hungary, Croatia, Sweden and Ukraine.¹⁵⁵