The Ministry of Education has identified the most popular majors among college applicants in 2026

In 2026, nursing applicants received the most state-funded spots at pre-higher vocational education institutions. “Construction and Civil Engineering” ranked second in popularity, and “Electrical Engineering” ranked third.

 

The largest number of applications came from applicants with a basic secondary education (after 9th grade)—230,139. There were 154,151 applications from applicants with a complete general secondary education (after 11th grade).

Applicants also applied to colleges based on a vocational qualification (26,500 applications) and educational and professional degrees such as junior bachelor’s, junior specialist, or junior bachelor’s (1,392 applications).

In total, the top ten included ten majors that admitted between 2,000 and over 7,000 applicants. The gap between first and tenth place is more than threefold.

The most popular majors among students admitted on a state-funded basis:

• Nursing – 7,469;
• Construction and Civil Engineering – 4,085;
• Electrical Engineering – 3,847;
• Automotive Transportation – 3,374;
• Food Technology – 3,201;
• Mechanical Engineering – 2,751;
• Agricultural Engineering – 2,674;
• Computer Engineering – 2,388;
• Software Engineering – 2,304;
• Accounting and Taxation – 2,015.

Source: Ministry of Education

The Verkhovna Rada’s Education Committee recommended retaining the 4-subject model of the National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT).

Earlier, 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 completed and take the NMT that same day.