Higher Education in Ukrainian Educational System

This is the extract from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 26.(1). Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. According to the Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, higher education (H.E.) is education and training at college and university, especially to degree level.

Here in Ukraine education is rooted in very old traditions reaching ancient times. In the 16^th-18^th centuries, an increasing number of schools were set up by national religious-educational communities – “Brotherhoods”, for instance in Lviv (1585), Kyiv (1615) and Lutsk (1620). The Greek-Slavonic-Latin Collegium, Ukraine’s first institution of higher learning, was founded in Ostroh in 1576.

At the turn of the 18^th century the level of public literacy placed Ukraine ahead of a number of Western and Eastern European countries.

The first universities appeared in Lviv (1661), then in Kharkiv (1805), Kyiv (1834) and Odesa (1865). Later, specialized institutes were opened for training industrial, railroad engineers, agronomists, physicians and specialists in other fields.

The educational system includes pre-school educational establishments. The basic link in the chain of public education in Ukraine is the “general education school” (secondary school). It has three stages: primary, basic and senior. Educational system of Ukraine also includes vocational training establishments.

To become a university student one must pass entrance exams to a certain higher-educational establishment. However, there can be some other variants of entering universities. Entrants can also have interviews instead of exams or their school-leaving exam marks or grades can be their university entrance exams marks. According to legislation, university education may be either free of charge or students must pay tuition fee.

Usually full-time students of a university study for five years (except medical students who have a bit different rules.). An academic year may consist of two terms or semesters. After each term Ukrainian students have a difficult time of exams and credits that is called session. If they pass it successfully and their studying is free of charge, our students can get their scholarship. Universities also provide extra-mural and distant forms of education.

After four years of hard work undergraduates get their first Bachelor’s degree. Then they continue their studying and in a year they become either specialists or they can defend their thesis for a Master’s Degree. Students who study to get their first degree are called undergraduates, when they have studied their five years they are called graduates. Ukrainian students study at universities to obtain both diplomas of higher education and degree. The notion of degree has been borrowed from the western systems of higher education and adopted to our realities. But they do not coincide with those ones of e.g. the U.K. or the USA.

Graduates who want to continue their education after university can do it at post-graduate courses. They become post-graduates who after having studied for some years and having prepared their candidate theses defend them and get one more degree, that one of candidate.

Nowadays the system of higher education is surviving the period of transforming. We must adopt the principles of Bologna process, according to which teaching methods will be improved and Ukrainian educational standards will answer the European requirements as well as Ukrainian diplomas and certificates of higher education will be regarded abroad.

If you are eager to obtain higher education, you can do it at any university of Ukraine. The most famous among them are: Kyiv National University named after Taras Shevchenko, Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko, Drahomanov Kyiv National Teacher’s Training University, Kyiv Polytechnical Institute, National Economic University, International Independent University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. Every big city of Ukraine has a National University. If you are interested in light industry technologies you can enter the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design. You can also study abroad if you can afford it. But this is another story.

3. Find the answers to the questions:

1. What is higher education?

2. What traditions is Ukrainian education rooted in?

3. Where and when did first universities appear in Ukraine?

4. What learning establishments does Ukrainian educational system include?

5. At which educational establishments can one obtain H.E.?

6. How did you enter the university?

7. What are full-time students, undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates?

8. When can one get a Bachelor’s Degree?

9. You get a Master’s Degree after three years of studying, don’t you?

10. Does one complete his/her education after graduating from the university?

4. Complete the sentences:

1. ‘… higher education shall be … ‘

2. … especially to degree level.

3. Ukraine’s first institution of higher learning was founded …

4. According to the legislation …

5. Usually full-time students …

5. Match the English words with their Ukrainian equivalents:

6. True or false statements:

1. Higher education is education and practice at school or vocational training establishment to degree level.

2. At the beginning of the 20^th century the level of public literacy placed Ukraine ahead of many countries.

3. To become a university student one must not pass any exams.

4. Usually Ukrainian full-time students study for 15 years.

5. You can get a Bachelor’s Degree after the first year at your university.

6. Students who work to get their first degree are called undergraduates.

7. Ukrainian graduates get both diplomas of higher education and a degree of a specialist.

8. The system of higher education in our country is going to remain without any change.

9. Foreign university degrees completely correspond to Ukrainian ones.