The order of the Ministry of Education and Science, which deprived contractual postgraduate students of the right to deferment, was declared invalid
25 July 2024 17:24
The State Regulatory Service (SRS) has declared the order of the Ministry of Education and Science banning full-time contractual postgraduate studies to be unlawful. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the relevant document of the regulator No. 2886/20-24 of 19 July 2024.
This refers to a special order issued by Oksen Lisovyi, which deprived full-time postgraduate students of the right to study on a contract basis. In this regard, an appeal was received from the NGO Youth Human Rights Agency, which Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal instructed the regulator to consider. Representatives of the Association of Student Self-Governments and the Union of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions also applied to the SRS.
They complained that the Ministry’s leadership had violated the Constitution and a number of laws of Ukraine, which could lead to an outflow of academics and dismissal of university staff.
According to the applicants, such actions of the Ministry of Education and Science will lead to an outflow of young Ukrainian scientists to foreign universities and research institutions, significant losses of extra-budgetary funding for higher education institutions of Ukraine of all forms of ownership and, as a result, to the forced dismissal of some of the academic staff of these institutions and deterioration of the prospects for the development of domestic university science.
In its turn, the SRS noted that the orders of the Ministry of Education and Science are not in line with international treaties and agreements ratified by Ukraine. The main violations relate to the right to education, non-discrimination and proportionality of restrictions under the state of emergency.
As a result, the state regulator concluded that the provisions of the MES orders violate several international treaties and agreements ratified by Ukraine in terms of restricting the right to education, fail to ensure equality and non-discrimination requirements, and do not comply with the principles of proportionality and justification of restrictions under martial law. In the near future, the Ministry of Justice should review and cancel such orders.
