The Ministry of Education responded to the ombudsman's call to lower the minimum admission score
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has spoken out against ad hoc changes to the admission campaign rules and the revision of the minimum competitive score for certain majors. The ministry rejected a corresponding proposal from Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada’s Human Rights Commissioner, emphasizing that the rules were established well in advance and cannot be changed on a whim without analyzing the consequences.
The requirement to have at least 150 admission points applies to medical, legal, and international majors, as well as to public administration and certain fields of economics.
These rules were introduced gradually to ensure high-quality training for specialists on whom the lives of citizens and the functioning of state institutions depend. The ministry understands the difficult conditions under which graduates are taking the National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT) during the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion; therefore, an additional testing session has been scheduled for those who were unable to take the test due to air raid alerts during the main testing period. The ministry also urged people not to confuse the passing score with the minimum competitive score, which is calculated using a formula that takes various coefficients into account.
This is stated in an official announcement from the Ministry of Education and Science.
Earlier, Lubinets called for lowering the passing score for the National Multisubject Test (NMT) from 150 to 130 points due to the difficult conditions for taking exams during martial law.
The Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment commented on the situation in the Odesa region, where participants in the National Multisubject Test spent nearly 13 hours at the testing center due to prolonged air raid alerts. According to the agency, graduates were offered the option to reschedule the exam for an additional session, but they refused and decided to wait until the testing was over and take the NMT that same day.
As a reminder, foreigners in Ukraine may be required to take a paid Ukrainian language exam.
