The year 2024 was marked by a significant decrease in the number of applicants who were enrolled in higher education institutions of Ukraine. According to the State Enterprise "Inforesurs", more than 187,000 first-year students were enrolled in budgetary and contractual forms of education. This is 80 thousand less than last year, when the number of enrolled students was 267 thousand.
In general, more than 217,000 applicants applied for admission to higher education institutions in 2024. This decline in enrollment can be attributed to numerous factors, including the socio-economic situation associated with the war, as well as changes in the education system.
At the same time, in 2025, the introductory campaign will start earlier — already in May. An important stage will be the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT), which will be held from May 14 to July 25. According to the new rules, NMT participants will be able to pass four subjects in one day. The Ukrainian language, mathematics and the history of Ukraine remain mandatory, as well as one of the additional subjects to choose from - Ukrainian literature, geography, biology, chemistry, physics or a foreign language.
To facilitate access to exams for different ethnic groups, NMT tasks will be translated into four languages — Crimean Tatar, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian. Each applicant will be able to choose the desired language during registration for the exam.
The proposals of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to exempt applicants with the highest NMT scores from the obligation to work at their first workplace also play an important role in the changes to the admissions campaign. It is expected that this move may affect 10-15% of the entrants. According to the new funding model, the state order should cover 25-30% of applicants who will be required to work in the public sector after completing their studies.
The decrease in the number of first-year students in 2024 and the innovations in the admission campaign of 2025 indicate the importance of adapting the education system to the new conditions and needs of the country, in particular in the conditions of war.
