It will be easier for Crimean residents to enter Ukrainian universities – expert

The Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine has elaborated new rules of admission to the universities for Crimean entrants.

The information from a high school transcript, issued to a pupil in Crimea, can be now entered into the educational declaration of Ukraine. The special centers to provide advice to school graduates will be established in a number of cities, assistant chairman of the Center for Civic Education “Almenda” Valentyna Potapova said in an interview with Hromadske Radio.

“The centers will be established in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Kharkiv and Kherson. They also will be established at the universities in these cities. These centers are endowed with great powers: they will provide advice to children on how the information from a transcript issued in Crimea may be entered into the educational declaration of Ukraine. A pupil fills out the marks in it. Then, a pupil shows a transcript, issued in Crimea. That is, Ukraine does not recognize the Crimean transcript, but recognizes the information from it,” Potapova explained.

The marks from Crimean transcripts will not be issued in form of a Ukrainian transcript, but pupils will receive a document stating that they are certified in all subjects except for the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian language.

According to the expert, earlier the children who studied in Crimea had to complete studies at two programs at once – the Russian and the distant Ukrainian, if they wanted to enter the Ukrainian university.

“Such a study load was contrary to all the norms. Attractiveness of Ukrainian education faded in this case. So, only 293 people took advantage of this form last year. Today the situation is different: the number of children from Crimea, which have registered for the external independent testing – 600-700 people, even though they still do not know about simplification of the system,” the expert said.