Ukraine has seen a sharp increase in the number of men entering educational institutions over the age of 25. State institutions state that education is increasingly becoming a way to get a deferral from mobilization during martial law.
Back in 2021, about 30,000 men in this age category studied at universities, colleges, and other educational institutions. Now their number has increased to approximately 250,000. This was reported by the head of the State Education Quality Service, Ruslan Hurak, noting that the state has already begun systematic inspections.
According to Gurak, the first inspections have shown the scale of the phenomenon, and they are only planned to intensify. Inspections will continue until the end of 2025 and at the beginning of the next academic year - in total, about 50 colleges and higher education institutions are awaiting repeated inspections. The issue of student expulsions will be decided after the audits are completed.
Special emphasis is placed on colleges in the inspections. The reason is that the rules for entering universities have been significantly complicated by the Ministry of Education and the Verkhovna Rada, which is why some men choose pre-university education as an easier way to get a deferment.
According to the results of the inspections already conducted throughout Ukraine, about 50 thousand students were expelled, but the general trend of increasing the number of students over 25 years of age remains obvious.
Ruslan Hurak emphasizes that for many years the number of such students remained stable at around 30,000, regardless of whether they were in colleges, universities or second higher education. However, after the start of the full-scale war, this contingent grew more than eightfold.
With Ukraine's population shrinking to an estimated 25–30 million, the increase in the number of students raises additional questions for state institutions. Inspections are ongoing, and the government emphasizes that control over education must be strengthened due to the requirements of mobilization legislation.
