The 2026 admissions cycle set a record for the number of applications to bachelor's degree programs
On Saturday, August 1, at 6:00 p.m., the main application period for admission to bachelor’s and medical master’s programs ended. This year, applicants submitted 1,189,960 applications to higher education institutions, marking the highest figure in the last five years.
“In total, universities received 1,189,960 applications. The final number may change slightly after applications submitted in the final hours are processed. This is the highest figure in the last five admissions cycles. It exceeds the 2025 figure by 260,288 applications, or 28%. This year’s number of applications is even higher than the 2020 figure—when applicants submitted 1,095,914 applications. “It fell short of the 2021 level—when 1,254,547 applications were recorded—by about 65,000, or 5%,” Trofimenko noted.
He reminded that “all of this is under new conditions: the maximum number of applications per applicant has been reduced from 15 to 10. The number of electronic applicant accounts created has also reached a record high over the past five years.”
The deputy minister noted that “the most important thing now for applicants is not to miss the next steps: by August 6 at the latest, admission recommendations will appear in their online accounts; by 6:00 p.m. on August 11, they must confirm their choice of institution and fulfill the university’s requirements.
Enrollment in state-funded programs will take place no later than August 13.
Deputy Minister of Education and Science Mykola Trofimenko announced this on Facebook.
Applicants can expect a second wave of enrollment as part of the 2026 admissions campaign.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment commented on the situation in the Odesa region, where participants in the National Multidisciplinary 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 on the same day.
An alternative bill to change the format of the National Multisubject Test (NMT) has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. The bill proposes reducing the number of subjects to be tested from four to three. In this case, mathematics would be an elective subject.
