UKRAINE: Number of universities to be reduced

The number of higher education institutions in Ukraine may be significantly cut in the coming years under an initiative by the Ukrainian government. The reduction will take place in accordance with a new higher education law, which is expected to be adopted by parliament within the next few months.

Dmitry Tabachnik, Ukraine's Minister of Education, said that there was a possibility that the reduction of universities may take place in the form of voluntary mergers.

"Ukraine cannot have more than 900 higher education institutions," Tabachnik commented.

"This is not a whim of the government, but a premonition of the collapse of the whole system. Currently, Ukraine has more universities than in Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Belgium put together, where the combined population is more than 250 million, compared to Ukraine's 45 million people."

The universities to be closed or merged have not yet been disclosed. But according to sources close to the Ukrainian government, there is a possibility that some well-known state universities, not only private institutions whose number has dramatically increased since the collapse of the Soviet Union, could be among them.

The government believes that a reduction in the number of universities and an improvement in the quality of education will result in the achievement of one of the main goals of Ukrainian higher education, which is to get at least two or three of the country's institutions in the world's top 500 universities.

The state's proposal has already been supported by a number of leading Ukrainian higher education experts.

Vladimir Lugovoi, Vice-president of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, said: "We need to use the international experience, aiming at one university for every half to one million of the population. Ukrainian higher education institutions should increase their personnel, scientific, financial and technological power."

Meanwhile, according to skeptics, the reduction in the number of universities and mergers may result in a decrease in Ukraine's intellectual potential, the loss of universities' material resources and massive layoffs of teachers.

According to Leonid Naumenko, Provost for scientific and pedagogical work at the Dnepropetrovsk Medical Academy, one of the largest medical universities in Ukraine, university closures would be a stalemate for the state.

He argued that the restructuring could lead to loss of contact with the international labour market, which currently provides employment opportunities for many graduates of Ukrainian universities, and could damage the reputation of the country's higher education institutions.

Another government initiative is to give greater autonomy and financial independence to universities. Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's President, has said the government may give universities the right to design their own academic programmes without state intervention and to design and change their organisational structures.

He also talked about the need to eliminate multiple audits of universities, especially during the periods of entrance examinations.