Just ten years ago, the ranking of the most popular majors in Ukraine was fairly predictable: philology, law, management, and economics.
Technical universities continued to train engineers, power engineers, and construction professionals, and the government allocated state-funded spots for these fields; but they found it increasingly difficult to compete for young people’s attention with majors associated with office work, international companies, finance, or IT.
In 2026, this trend began to shift noticeably.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, after the main application period ended, Ukrainian applicants submitted 23,822 applications for construction and civil engineering. This is 9,082 applications, or 61.6%, more than in 2025.
There were 16,366 applications for electrical engineering—an increase of 57.1%. Applications for automation, computer-integrated technologies, and robotics totaled 15,365—a 53.5% increase from the previous year.
Interest in aviation and aerospace engineering grew even faster in relative terms—by 74.6%.
UA.News explores how Ukrainians’ educational priorities have changed over the past 20 years, why the war has brought engineering professions back into the spotlight, and whether today’s freshmen could, in a few years, become the generation that will literally rebuild the country.
Admissions 2026: Ukrainians Are Increasingly Choosing Engineering Majors
The 2026 admissions campaign has generally been significantly more active than the previous one.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, as of August 3, applicants had submitted 1,189,960 applications to Ukrainian higher education institutions for bachelor’s and medical master’s programs.
This is 28% more than in 2025. The Ministry also notes that this is the highest number of applications in the last five admissions cycles, starting in 2022. Only in 2021 were there more—about 1.33 million.
At the same time, it is important to distinguish between the number of applications and the number of applicants themselves: one person may apply to several programs at once. Traditional majors have not lost their popularity.
Management became the most popular field in 2026, with 105,301 applications. Psychology received 66,774 applications, philology—61,410, marketing—49,345, and economics and international economic relations—42,893.
Computer science, with 40,755 applications, ranked sixth. Finance, law, secondary education, and cybersecurity also made it into the top ten.
In other words, it would be incorrect to say that Ukrainians have suddenly lost interest in becoming lawyers, managers, or psychologists. The most interesting developments are found further down the ranking—where it’s not absolute popularity but growth rates that stand out.
The Ministry of Education and Science separately analyzes 40 civilian majors that receive special support from the state. In 2025, 174,166 applications were submitted for these programs. In 2026, that number rose to 232,354. The one-year increase amounts to 33.4%.
These fields include construction, electrical engineering, automation and robotics, mechanical engineering, transportation, agricultural, and certain natural science majors.
Construction was particularly notable. In 2026, 23,822 applications were received for the “Construction and Civil Engineering” program, which is 9,082 more than last year.
Thus, interest in this field grew by more than one and a half times in just a single admissions cycle. Electrical engineering received an additional 5,948 applications—a 57.1% increase—while automation and robotics received an additional 5,356 applications, or a 53.5% increase.
Demand for automotive engineering also increased significantly—by 39%—and 8,634 applications were submitted for mechanical engineering in 2026.
The university rankings are also telling. Lviv Polytechnic National University took first place in terms of the number of applications submitted in 2026, with 59,676 applications. The university’s figure increased by 37.6% over the year.
Third place went to the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, with 39,188 applications—a 37% increase compared to 2025.
In other words, the country’s two largest technical universities were both among the three most popular higher education institutions in Ukraine.
What Ukrainian Applicants Chose in 2016
If we go back exactly ten years, the educational landscape looks somewhat different. In 2016, Ukrainian applicants submitted 2,011,062 applications to educational institutions.
At that time, approximately 584,000 people submitted applications. And this alone clearly shows why it is incorrect to compare only the total number of applications in 2016 and 2026. A single applicant could submit applications to several universities at once and for multiple majors, and admission rules have changed significantly over the past decade.
Under the rules of the 2016 admissions cycle, an applicant could submit up to 15 applications for five majors to participate in the competitive selection process for state-funded spots. Today, the system of restrictions is different.
Therefore, the two million applications in 2016 do not mean that nearly twice as many people were admitted to universities back then as there are now. What is far more important is what programs they actually chose.
Inna Sovsun, then First Deputy Minister of Education, reported after the application deadline that, year after year, philology, management, economics, and law remained the most popular fields, while computer science was increasingly establishing itself among the leaders.
Engineering majors did not dominate the general rankings among applicants at that time. However, the government was already well aware of the shortage of technical personnel.
In the 2016 state-funded enrollment quota, some of the largest technical fields were electric power engineering, electrical engineering, and electromechanics; construction and civil engineering; and industry-specific mechanical engineering.
In other words, a situation typical of Ukraine at that time arose: the government needed engineers, but a significant portion of applicants wanted to study to become managers, economists, lawyers, or philologists.
And what was the situation 20 years ago: the 2006 admissions campaign
It’s even more interesting to look back at 2006. A direct comparison of the number of applications with the current admissions campaign is practically impossible here.
Ukraine did not yet have the current electronic admissions system or the Unified State Electronic Database for Admissions (ESEDBO); documents were mostly submitted directly to admissions committees, and the names of degree programs and the very structure of higher education differed.
In the official decision of the Ministry of Education and Science’s board dated November 2, 2006, regarding the fulfillment of the state quota and the results of admissions to higher education institutions, the Ministry explicitly stated that the most popular fields of study among applicants remained law, economics, and computer science, as well as international relations.
At the same time, the ministry specifically noted a rise in demand for construction, technical, and transportation majors. In other words, the interest in engineering that Ukraine is seeing today is not an entirely new phenomenon.
Moreover, in 2006, some technical universities had some of the highest admission competition rates in the country. According to the same document from the Ministry of Education and Science, the highest competition rate was at the Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava National Technical University—6.7 applications per spot.
At the Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University, the ratio was 6.3 applications per spot. By comparison, the Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University had 5.8 applications per spot.
Looking back over the past twenty years of Ukrainian education, a sort of pendulum effect emerges. In the mid-2000s, the government was already noting a rise in interest in construction, technical, and transportation fields. In the mid-2010s, educational trends shifted significantly toward philology, law, management, economics, and IT.
And in the mid-2020s, engineering is once again taking center stage—but under entirely different circumstances. Ukraine is simultaneously at war, building up its defense industry, and preparing for the largest reconstruction effort in its modern history.
How the War Has Changed Attitudes Toward the Engineering Profession
It would be too simplistic to attribute the rise in applications for technical majors solely to the patriotism of young people. Above all, the very image of the engineer has changed.
Just twenty years ago, for many schoolchildren, the word “engineer” might have been associated with a factory, blueprints, a design bureau, or the profession of their parents and grandparents. Today, engineering is present in the media literally every day.
FPV drones, long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, ground-based robotic systems, electronic warfare systems, communication equipment, guidance systems, autonomous power supply, new air defense systems, and production lines for the defense industry—engineers are behind each of these technologies.
The war has effectively demonstrated to an entire generation of Ukrainians that engineering is not an outdated profession, but one of the cornerstones of the country’s technological competitiveness. But the defense industry is only part of the future demand.
After the war, the country will have to repair and build power plants, substations, railways, highways, residential neighborhoods, industrial facilities, water supply systems, and thousands of other infrastructure projects.
That is precisely why the current shift in educational demand may prove to be very timely.
Ukraine needs nearly $588 billion for reconstruction
The scale of the work ahead can already be estimated in monetary terms. According to the fifth joint assessment of Ukraine’s reconstruction and rehabilitation needs — RDNA5, prepared by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the UN, Ukraine’s total reconstruction and rehabilitation needs as of December 31, 2025, are estimated at nearly $588 billion over the next decade.
This is nearly three times Ukraine’s projected nominal GDP for 2025. Total direct damages already exceed $195 billion. The greatest long-term needs lie precisely in sectors where large-scale recovery is impossible without engineers.
According to World Bank estimates, transportation will require about 16.4% of all reconstruction resources, energy—15.4%, and the housing sector—15.3%. In monetary terms, the transportation sector’s needs exceed $96 billion, the energy sector’s are approaching $91 billion, and the housing sector’s are approaching $90 billion.
This means thousands of individual projects. Someone will have to design a new bridge. Someone will have to plan a new neighborhood to replace the one that was destroyed. Someone will have to modernize the power grid. Someone will have to launch a production line. Someone will have to restore railway hubs, thermal power plants, water supply systems, and industrial facilities.
Therefore, the question is not only whether Ukraine will find hundreds of billions of dollars. An equally important question is who will actually carry out these projects.
Funds for reconstruction can be found. It is much harder to find people
And this problem is already becoming apparent. In its report, the World Bank points out that human capital is becoming one of the main bottlenecks in Ukraine’s recovery.
The war, mobilization, migration, and internal displacement have created a serious imbalance between the types of workers available on the Ukrainian labor market and the specialists the economy needs.
And this problem is only likely to intensify as the scale of reconstruction efforts begins to grow.
In theory, Ukraine could receive billions of dollars in international funding and prepare dozens of large-scale infrastructure programs, only to face a simple shortage of people capable of implementing them.
That is precisely why the 2026 enrollment figures are important not only for universities. A student who enrolls today in a program in construction, energy, or automation will complete their bachelor’s degree around 2030.
That is, just when a significant portion of the large-scale postwar reconstruction will still be underway.
Simply increasing the number of state-funded spots is not enough
There is another problem. An increase in the number of applications does not in itself mean that Ukraine will automatically gain tens of thousands of highly qualified engineers.
Some students will drop out of university. Some will change their major. Some will go to work abroad after graduation. And some may receive a degree but never acquire the practical skills required by modern industry.
Therefore, government policy cannot stop at the stage of “let’s just provide more state-funded spots.” Engineering education must be aligned as closely as possible with the real economy.
A future power engineer must be able to work with the equipment and software systems used in modern power grids. A civil engineering student must be familiar with BIM modeling, European building codes, modern materials, and the principles of energy efficiency.
A future automation specialist must see an industrial production line not just in a professor’s presentation. And a student in the mechanical engineering department must understand, even while still in school, how modern Ukrainian manufacturing facilities operate.
Salary will be no less important. Ukraine will compete for young engineers with Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and other EU countries.
If a graduate of a Ukrainian university has the opportunity to earn several times more abroad, a single patriotic appeal to “stay and rebuild the country” will not be enough.
Therefore, the state’s task is not only to train specialists but also to create conditions under which they will want to work here.
From lawyers and managers to engineers: what the last 20 years show
If we combine the statistics from three different admissions cycles, we can see an interesting trend.
2006. Law, economics, computer science, and international relations remain the most popular fields. But the Ministry of Education and Science is already noting a rise in demand for careers in construction, engineering, and transportation.
2016. Philology, management, economics, and law remain among the most popular fields. Computer science is becoming increasingly popular, but traditional engineering majors do not account for the majority of applicants’ choices.
2026. Management, psychology, and philology still attract significantly more applications than most traditional engineering majors.
However, the situation is changing rapidly. Construction has seen a 61.6% increase in applications in a single year, electrical engineering a 57.1% increase, and automation and robotics a 53.5% increase.
Two technical universities—Lviv Polytechnic and KPI—are among the top three institutions with the highest number of applications. This is not yet an educational revolution. But the direction of change is already evident.
The war has brought engineering professions into the spotlight. The development of Ukrainian defense tech has shown that engineers can create technologies capable of directly influencing the situation on the battlefield.
And the scale of the upcoming reconstruction makes technical personnel economically essential.
And if the current trend in admissions continues, the students who will first step into the classrooms of the civil engineering, energy, and mechanical engineering departments in 2026 may well be called the generation of Ukraine’s reconstruction in a few years’ time.
