Draft bill #10177 of October 23, 2023 

Sponsor: the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine 

Status: sent for review to the dedicated parliamentary committee 

Who is affected: the Ministry of Education and Science, students, and higher education establishments. 

Summary: 

  • interdisciplinary educational programs will be introduced 
  • each year, students will decide what will be included in their individual curricula. An acceptable annual load will be of at least 30 but not more than 80 ECTS credits for students at the initial, bachelor’s, and master’s levels 
  • higher education establishments will be able to launch and implement educational programs not only on their own but also in cooperation with other educational or scientific establishments, enterprises, and other legal entities 
  • students will be able to claim ECTS credits received as a part of vocational and higher education, formal, non-formal and/or informal education, as well as internal and international academic mobility programs 
  • students will be able to change the duration of their term of education under an educational program. It will be possible to reduce it by no more than 25 percent by increasing the number of credits throughout the year conditional on successful educational results 
  • for those who complete a program faster, the fee for the entire period of study will remain the same 
  • there will be changes for spiritual higher education establishments: 
    • certificates issued by unlicensed establishments will be recognized as obtained through non-formal education 
    • in one year after martial law in Ukraine ends, the state will no longer recognize certificates on spiritual higher education, including degrees and academic titles received before September 1, 2018 
  • the last admission of students obtaining a junior bachelor’s degree will be held in 2023 
  • the last admission of students obtaining a bachelor’s and master’s degree via evening or correspondence learning will also be held in 2023. Instead, students will be able to apply for online learning 
  • correspondence and evening learning, which started before 2023, will continue as usual and students will get their higher education certificates. 

What is right: 

  • there will be more opportunities for students to shape their individual educational curricula 
  • universities will have more autonomy in developing and implementing educational programs.