Newspaper ‘Dzerkalo Tyzhnya. Ukraina”, issue 25 as of July 11th, 2014, published an article by Ivan Sikora titled "The New Law on Higher Education: Achievements and Challenges".
Ukraine has 803 institutions of I-IV accreditation levels and more than 2 million students (4.4% of the state's population). More than a half of the students are funded by individuals and legal entities (get educated on contract bases). The average tuition reaches an average of UAH 10 to 20 thousand per year. In other words, for contract-based higher education Ukrainians spend an average of UAH 10 to 20 billion annually. This is the official side of things only (the other side of the coin concerns the corruption payments done by parents willing to “educate the child" in a decent university or students who have low expectations of education, yet need the basic "paper" – the diploma of higher education). Unfortunately, it is often not clear what students and their parents pay for. Knowledge and skills obtained in the university are not being appreciated by the employers. However, providers of educational services have little concerns. Will the things change after the Law "On Higher Education" enters into force?
How will Ukrainians benefit from "Zgurovsky’s Law"?
The Law 1187-2 "On Higher Education" was recently adopted by Parliament. It is also known as "Zgurovsky’s Law" (as it was developed by a team led by the rector of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Mykhailo Zgurovsky). The law aims to:
• bring higher education in Ukraine with EU standards and increase the competitiveness of universities and science in general;
• increase the demand for the knowledge and skills on the part of employers;
• create opportunities for research within universities;
• expand the autonomy of higher educational institutions in Ukraine;
• create clear rules for admission and define the role of the External Independent Assessment (EIA).
Article 53 of the Constitution of Ukraine determines the absolute right of every citizen to education. The Basic Law clearly stipulates that the state ensures accessibility and no-cost of higher education in state-owned and communal educational establishments. However, at the moment the constitutional guarantee of the equal right to education and availability of high quality education remains in question.
UAH 10 to 20 thousand per year for tuition plus "enrollment competition for parents”. Add shadow charges and ordinary corruption. Consider the minimum wage of UAH1176. Is this "free of charge" higher education equally available? The cost of education in Ukraine often exceeds the cost of a similar class for higher education in neighboring Poland, despite the fact that the average Polish salary is much higher.
The high cost of education does not guarantee knowledge and skills, competitive and demanded by the labour market. As a result even leading Ukrainian universities often provide non-competitive graduates, who eventually need retraining. There is a devaluation of higher education as a mean of obtaining professional knowledge.
The adoption of the new Law "On Higher Education" was defined as a priority within Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s government program as of February 27th, 2014. The Program, in particular, states that the government will "ensure the access to quality education as a social lift - regardless the level of financial sustainability of the families". In addition, the Program's authors stress the need for decentralization of the education system management and linking education with the requirements of the modern labour market.
How to increase the value of human capital and prevent its migration?
Human capital creates the value added. The best students are attracted through grants, scholarships and better conditions for implementing their own ideas. Current Ukrainian education system, unfortunately, had led mainly to a brain drain. Those who stayed were mostly doomed because of bureaucracy, corruption and minor pay.
Higher education and science were the areas of economic activity that has allowed Ukraine, despite low GDP, to claim the position of decent medium performer in various world rankings. In 2012 Global Innovation Index Ukraine ranked 63rd among 141 countries around the globe. In 2011 edition of the same index it scored 60th among 125 countries. Higher education and the state of research and development (R&D) were the factors that determined the quality of the innovation. Development of higher education in Ukraine in 2012 was ranked 34th (39th - in 2011). The coverage of higher education was assessed 8th. The share of the graduates of science and engineering was ranked 19th.
Evaluation of R&D included three indicators:
1) number of researchers per 1 million of people - 44th;
2) spending for R&D - 37th;
3) quality of the research institutes - 69th.
In 2012 Ukraine ranked 30th in the productivity of research activities (40th - in 2011), in particular for the following parameters: the creation of new scientific knowledge, characterized by the number of patents and scientific articles - 21st, diffusion of knowledge – 55th, the impact of knowledge - 66th place.
Ukraine ranked 73rd among 144 countries in the Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013 (82nd in 2011-2012) due to its main competitive advantages - education and market capacity.
One of the important components of Competitiveness Index was a measure of "Innovation", which included such key indicators as "the availability of high-quality research institutions" (64th place), "universities and business cooperation in research" (69th), "the availability of scientific and engineering personnel" (25th) and "protection of intellectual property" (51first place).
According to Scopus Database for 2011 Ukraine ranked 45th among the 76 countries that publish more than 1,000 scientific articles per year. Ukraine's share in the total number of publications was 0.29% (Western Europe - 29.8%, USA - 19.9%, China - 14.3%, Japan - 4.42%, India - 3.39%, Russia - 1.49%).
In some areas (mathematics, theoretical physics, chemistry, biotechnology, materials science, welding technology, obtaining and strengthening the protective coatings, aerospace) the national science remains highly competitive around the world. Annual revenues of over 20% of the funding of R&D come from foreign customers and demonstrate the high demand for Ukrainian scientists. Ukrainian science possessed real opportunities for international scientific, technological and innovation cooperation and integration in the world scientific and technological space.
In 2014 the network of higher educational institutions of I-IV accreditation levels included 803 institutions: 415state-owned, 221 in communal property and 167 private. Among 325 higher educational institutions of III-IV accreditation levels 215 were state-owned, 14 are in communal property and 96 were private. Ukrainian higher education system covered 198 universities, 62 academies, 83 institutes, 245 colleges, 97 technical schools, 117 training schools and 1 conservatory. In 2013/2014 academic year, the number of students of higher educational institutions of all levels of accreditation and ownership totaled with 2052 thousand persons (4.4% of the state's population). 52% of these (1074 thousand) got educated at the cost of individuals or legal entities.
Ukraine is among the top twenty countries in the world by number of international students and graduate students. In 2013/2014 academic year more than 69 thousand foreign students from 146 countries enrolled in Ukrainian universities, which served as definite indicator of the quality of national higher education.
In 2013/2014 academic year the higher educational institutions of all accreditation levels employed 195.2 thousand pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical staff. Particularly, the higher educational institutions of III-IV accreditation levels employed 158.9 thousand.
However, only three national universities are present in the international ranking of universities QS World University Rankings. These are Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" and Donetsk National University. About 4 thousand students are sent abroad each year to study and work based on the direct agreements between Ukrainian and foreign higher educational institutions.
The share of education in gross value added (GVA), accumulated by country in 2012, was 6.2% (UAH 75.1 billion), which was twice as much as a share of construction. In recent years, the volume of gross value added in education was close to that of the mining industry (UAH 83.2 billion in 2012). The expenditure on education sector in 2014 consolidated budget amounted to UAH 105.5 billion (20.8% of total expenditures), twice exceeding the spending for economic activity (UAH 50.8 billion).
It should be noted that the institutions of higher education possessed substantial assets: hundreds of hectares of land, dormitories (in fact, hotel management system), technology, recreational facilities and more. How to effectively use this potential? What have the political actors represented in Parliament promised?
Why did the Party of Regions members (those who stayed in the party) support the draft law, considered oppositional before?
It should be noted that PR MPs Serhiy Kivalov, Ihor Kalyetnik and Mykola Soroka had registered the higher education draft law 1187 on December 28, 2012 in fulfillment of the campaign promises.
Mentioned draft provided for the continuation of the manual control over universities by the ministry, diminished weight of entrance exams and the collapse of EIT, and permitted admission on contract basis virtually all applicants by any university rules. Back then PR member DmytroTabachnyk was chairing the education ministry, and mentioned draft law was the logical continuation of the practice of "harvesting" universities and elimination of unwanted rectors. However, in the end the "Zgurovsky’s Law"1187-2 had won, providing for the establishment of university autonomy, promotion of fair competition among universities, and thus increased the quality of higher education.
"Zgurovsky’s Law" partly echoed the election commitments of the Party of Regions, specifically concerning "scholarships at the level of the minimum wage”. Now the minimum scholarship for junior BA degree is not less than 2/3 of a living wage and for BA and MA degrees it should not be less than minimal wage, UAH 1176. The fact that Serhiy Kivalov voted for "Zgurovsky’s Law" spoke of reorientation of one of the most influential PR member and rector of Odessa Law Academy. At the moment, when the Ministry of Education is no longer led by PR Minister Tabachnyk, the autonomy of Odessa Law Academy matches Kivalov’s interests.
PR promised to "ensure at least 75% of government contracts in higher education". Having PR representative chairing the Ministry of Education for a long time (Dmytro Tabachnyk), the Party of Regions had every opportunity to accomplish these promises. However, in 2013-2014 academic year the state funding was provided for 48% of students only. Moreover, Tabachnyk did his best for preserving the post-Soviet system of higher education and distortion of EIT.
The Communist party thesis on return to the state-sponsored free of charge pre-school, secondary, vocational and higher education sounded unrealistic. As for higher education, the Communists’ thesis sounded purely populist.
UDAR program provided for free secondary and vocational education, which was more down-to-earth. These promises were in fact implemented. On February 2, 2014, Parliamentary Committee on Education and Science stated that "as of September 1, 2013,374 thousand graduates of secondary schools were enrolled in the state vocational schools, of which only 1.5 percent studied on contract basis in groups, where the demand exceeded the government order".
“Svoboda’s” election program did not contain clear education-related promises, with the exception of the draft law 1233 as of January 10, 2013 on Ukrainian as the state language and procedure for the use of other languages in Ukraine (the group of authors included Iryna Fahrion and Andriy Illienko). The draft law provided for the use of Ukrainian language in education and science. However, "Svoboda" fraction still supported “Zgurovsky’s Law”. It is worth noting that after a bitter debate the amendment requesting exclusively Ukrainian language of teaching in higher education institutions, located in areas of minorities’ residence, was rejected.
"Zgurovsky’s Law" corresponds with the pre-election commitments of “Batkivschyna” and UDAR. “Batkivschyna” called for making education affordable and modern, support for EIT and the introduction of government grants for higher education. Mentioned draft law also met the pre-election thesis of university autonomy and the commercialization of science, and provided for substantial expansion of powers of the university. It reduced the workload by one third, allowing professors to devote more time to research activities.
Tellingly, 107 Party of Regions MPs and 32 Communists were absent in the session hall while the draft law was voted in principal back in April 2014. Instead, it was supported by “Batkivschyna” (81 votes), unaffiliated MPs (38), "Economic Development" group (36), "Svoboda"(30), UDAR (28), "European sovereign Ukraine" group (23).
When voted in full 276 MPs had supported the law. “Batkivschyna” faction devoted 77 out of 86 votes,UDAR - 27 of 41, "Svoboda" - 34 of 35. Parliamentary groups "Economic Development" and "European sovereign Ukraine" also supported the draft law, granting 39 and 35 votes respectively. 12 Party of Regions MPs (including almost all Odesans, headed by Serhiy Kivalov) decided to vote in favour. The Communist Party has decided not to vote in whole.
What will the new law on higher education change?
Universities will become more independent from the Ministry of Education, in particular, will vote for rectors. Universities will also have more opportunities for financial independence to implement the autonomy. They will be able to determine the organization of the educational process, provide additional educational services, use their own land and finance income and carry out business activities. Universities will have the right to issue state certified diplomas and their own documents of higher education. All information on university diplomas will be published in the United State Electronic Database on Education. Everyone will be able to access it through the website of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
The wording "educational entity of III-IV accreditation levels" will parish in past. Higher educational entities will be divided into 3 types: "University" as a universal institution, the "Academy" and "Institution" as industry-specific and research entities and "College" as the establishment training the professionals at the level of a junior Bachelor/Bachelor.
Regarding the admission procedures, the law determined that the value of EIT certificate in competitive score shall be no less than 20%, the average value of the school graduation certificate should not exceed 10%, and the proportion of creative/physical abilities of the entrant shall not exceed 50% of the total score.
ECTS system of credit transfer was introduced. It would allow more flexibility in the learning process, and thus reduction of the opportunities for corruption in universities. Students will be able to choose teachers and courses that are truly interesting, that would have a positive effect on the quality of teaching. The workload of teaching staff will be less than a third - up to 600 hours per year, which will help to focus more on scientific research.
Corruption risks: the new-and-old sources of corruption in education
University autonomy needs to be supported. Possible sources include the income from the budget (state or local), paid services and resources (property or land). This was the traditional area for the risks of corruption in the system of higher education. Not to mention licensing and evaluation of educational programs, traditionally considered “profitable” in the Ministry.
1. Property, land and paid services as the basis of financial independence of the universities. The new law provided for the responsibility of "the heads of Universities for carrying out educational, scientific, technological and innovative activities, [...] for the results of financial and economic activities, condition and maintenance of immovable and other property of the institution". The law also stated that "the property is assigned for operational control only to a state or communal institution of higher education. It cannot be pledged, and shall not be withdrawn or transferred into ownership of other businesses and individuals without the consent of the founders of the institution of higher education and senior collegial self-government body of the institution, except as provided by the law". That means that the property can still be transferred to the ownership of businesses and individuals with the consent of the founders and top collegiate authorities.
This provides enough opportunities for abuse. For example, the developer promised to build a house and provide a part of the apartments for the university. Afterwards, something had happened, the plans or circumstances had changed. The contract under which the facility was transferred turned to be imperfect. "Things happen" is the usual response in such cases. What’s next? As often happens, by that time an authorized person who signed the contract on behalf of the university, has left the office. The court proceedings will follow. The university will lose the property in a legal way. Will the annual meetings and reports of university management help?
2. Licensing and evaluation. Creation of the National Agency for Higher Education, determined by the new law, provided for independent collegial body to evaluate the standards of education. The intention was good, but "the devil is in the details”.
The National Agency will have a separate line in the national budget, aside from being able to get funding from other sources. The "bargaining" for the “correct” amount of funding from the budget can create a basis for “correct” or “incorrect” results of licensing and evaluation of various universities. For example, the National Agency for Higher Education will decide to "clean up" in the famous Kivalov’s Academy. One could predict the response of some parliamentarians to such actions. The bargaining will likely be shifted to another dimension and cabinets.
The mentioned National Agency will develop and approve standards of higher education and educational activities, licensing of educational activities and more. So in fact it would occupy some important powers, which traditionally had been a source of corruption in the system of Ministry of Education. It should be noted that the government will approve the statute of the Agency, appoint and dismiss its Chairman and Vice-Chairman. At the same time, the National Agency has the possibility to attract funding from the outside sources, including grants and funds received as payment for accreditation and licensing. In other words, the newly created body will obtain powers to resolve the fate of 803 educational entities, and there might be many willing to “bribe their way out of trouble” having the legal basis for this as provided by the Law - funding from the outside sources.
Preventive measures to counteract legalization of corrupt schemes that previously worked at the Ministry stay questioned. The law should have contained the clear criteria for evaluating standards of education and procedures for validation, ensuring maximum transparency and accountability of the National Agency. Whether the good intention of lawmakers to restore order in education would be negated by possible by-laws remains to be seen.
In the meantime, let's hope that education will finally meet its cost and will be focused not on the “learning for learning” but on the necessary knowledge and skills requested by the employers.
