Government increases public spending on universities by 12.3%

The 12.3% increase in public spending has come about for objective reasons, primarily related to the socio-economic situation in Ukraine: unregulated issues related to the financing of vocational education and training, factors that were caused by the military conflict on Ukrainian territory, and an increase in the number of undergraduates graduating in 2016, when compared with the previous year, stated Liliya Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science, during a session of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on 6 June.

Pavlo Rozenko, Deputy Prime Minister, said that the volume of public spending was within the defined allocation of funds, and neither the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade nor the Ministry of Education and Science have asked for any additional financing.

"If we look at the volume of spending on higher educational establishments by the Ministry of Education and Science, it decreased by 6% for establishments under the wing of the Ministry. Instead, the main increase was down to those professions and establishments under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence", added Liliya Hrynevych.

She also commented on the government spending increase by line item. Yes, she said, the increase in spending on junior specialists this year was due to the uncertain situation in vocational education and training. Since there was a transfer of authority to handle the budgets from a central level to local level, a number of small regional towns now have to finance their vocational training centres directly. But they do not have the budgets for this, so they cannot guarantee that the volume of public spending on vocational schools will remain at least at the level of the previous year.

"Where will these children go after the ninth grade? Nevertheless, we now have many ninth grade graduates who traditionally went on to professional training or higher education. Since public spending on further education is still today not defined, we decided to support these children with just a small increase necessary, of 10%, to provide junior specialist training", said the Minister of Education and Science.

In his report on this issue, Stepan Kubiv, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade, said that this year it was also necessary to consider applicants from Russian-occupied and uncontrolled territories of Ukraine, who wish to study in Ukraine and that will be entering university on a quota system.

Also, in accordance with published Regulations, public spending has been increased for Master’s degree education when compared with last year. As a result, the allocated amounts for Junior Specialist education take into account 67,500 individuals, Bachelor’s for 90,700 individuals, and Master’s for 60,000 individuals.

"In 2016 the figure increased for Master’s degree education due to the fact that this year Bachelor’s degrees were awarded to far more than in the past - the so-called “age wave”. So we have to increase the number of funded places for Master’s students", said Liliya Hrynevych.

Also the document as signed off defines the amount of public spending for postgraduate and PhD students in 2016 as catering for 4,600 students, with 493 places with grants. 11,600 students are to be expected for training as workforce specialists.