The Parliament limited the entry of Crimean residents into universities only of 4 regions of the mainland Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada authorized graduates, who live in the temporarily occupied territories (Crimea – IF) and received a document on secondary education, to enter educational institutions located on the territory of Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odessa and Kherson regions by the results of entrance examinations.

As reported by Interfax-Ukraine, 238 People’s Deputies voted for the bill №6116 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Higher Education regarding the right to higher education of persons whose residence is temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine” in the first reading and in general.

The bill allows persons who live in the temporarily occupied territory and who have received a document on secondary education to enter one of the universities located on the territoriy of Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odessa and Kherson regions on a competitive basis following the results of entrance examinations within the established quotas for admission to higher educational institutions of Ukraine.

The law also establishes the size of the quota for admission of persons whose place of residence is temporarily occupied territory to higher educational institutions located on the territory of Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odessa and Kherson regions, in the amount of 1,000 state orders.

At the same time, Oleksandra Dvoretska, a human rights defender and Chairman of the Board of the Vostok-SOS organization and Crimean Human Rights Center Action, is outraged by such restrictions for Crimean entrants.

She believes that the co-authors of the law – Mykola Frolov, who was rector of the Zaporizhzhya National University, Taras Kremen – acting professor of the Mykolaivsky National University, and Oleksandr Spivakovsky – chairman of the Educational Committee, at the moment of election the pro-rector of the Kherson State University – lobbied for the interests of their own universities.

“Those brave Crimeans who still wanted to go to study in mainland Ukraine now do not understand why they can not go to Lviv Polytechnic or to the displaced Tavrida National University. Why at the moment of the introductory campaign the rules change and why instead of abolishing this terrible system of obtaining Ukrainian-style certificates, the deputies simply hid the noncompetitiveness of their universities behind residents of Crimea, leaving them in the Russian-speaking regions without the opportunity to study throughout Ukraine?”, – writes Dvoretska on her Facebook page.

According to her, although according to the laws, the quota for residents of Crimea in the universities of the mainland Ukraine is 1,000 people, in practice there will not be even 500 persons under the mentioned conditions.

“No one had intends to increase the quality of the education, as well as to pull entrants from the Crimea”, – she added.

She emphasizes that “it took 20 minutes for the deputies to postpone for at least 10 years the issue of maintaining contacts with the peninsula and the possibility of reintegration”.

“Every Crimean entrant in the Russian Federation – five years later is friends in Russia, a family in Russia and life…”, – summed up Dvoretska.