Cabinet of Ministers proposes to reform higher education in Ukraine: more autonomy for students and cancellation of extramural and evening-time education, - Lisovyi. INFOGRAPHICS
As Censor.NET informs, this was announced by the Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi on Facebook.
"We are transforming higher education in Ukraine and bringing it closer to European standards. Changes in the higher education system are long overdue. This is what students and teachers, heads of higher education institutions and employers say. We can see this in the example of Ukrainians who have received higher education but have never worked in their specialty. They made a mistake in their choice or did not need it at all. Others, after graduating, had to get some more informal education to eventually get a profession and find a job," Lisovyi wrote.
The Minister complained that the true value of higher education in Ukraine has decreased, and therefore, in his opinion, it is simply impossible to postpone changes.
"What do we propose as the first steps? On 20 October, the government proposed a draft law to the Verkhovna Rada that would promote the development of individual educational trajectories of students and improve the educational process in higher education," Lisovyi wrote.
According to the proposed changes, contract students will have the opportunity to regulate the terms of study, they will be able to manage their annual workload in the range of 30-80 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits per year, they will be able to complete a bachelor's program in 3, 4, 5 or 6 years, which will create more opportunities for choice and freedom of students.
"At the bachelor's educational level, universities will be able to create interdisciplinary programs - those where several specialties are studied within one field. A student enters the field and after completing two courses (or 60-120 ECTS credits) can choose a specialty within this field for further study," the minister added.
Also, instead of extramural and evening-time education, it is proposed to introduce distance education, which does not require regulation and is in line with European practice. "Students studying part-time and distance learning will be able to complete their studies. And starting from 2024, new entrants will have to choose either full-time or distance learning," he added.
In addition, the draft law regulates the number of hours for lectures and practical tasks (10 hours out of 30 with a teacher for a bachelor's degree and 8 hours out of 30 for a master's degree).
"Finally, another important point is that we will be open to change. Yes, any systemic change can cause anxiety or even fear, because "it has always been this way". But without changing the rules of the game, we will not get a better result than we have today," summed up Lisovyi.
