MP: Proposal on the USQE for postgraduate students from the Ministry of Education will be changed
10 May 2024 14:55
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine will listen to the public’s reactions and comments and change the provisions of the draft resolution on the Unified State Qualification Examination (USQE) for postgraduate students. This was stated by Yulia Hryshyna, Member of Parliament of Ukraine, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
As a reminder, on 24 April this year, the Ministry of Education and Science proposed for public discussion a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the implementation of an experimental project on the certification of persons obtaining a doctorate in the form of a single state qualification exam”.
According to the project, postgraduate students will be certified in the form of an integrated test exam in Ukrainian and a foreign language. It is to be held for second-year PhD students in the form of an external independent evaluation or in another form. The Ministry of Education and Science promises to develop and approve the exam syllabus at least six months before the exam.
The period allocated by the Ministry for public discussion of the initiative has expired. Since it raised many comments, the relevant parliamentary committee joined the discussion. According to Yulia Hryshyna, chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, MPs will meet with government officials on Monday, 13 May, to discuss the draft.
“Today, we discussed with the Minister of Education and his specialised deputy Mykhailo Vynnytskyi the issue of introducing the USQE for postgraduate students, which is set out in the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers. Together with MPs, we have developed an alternative mechanism for monitoring the quality of education and sent an appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers with our proposals. Today we have agreed that on Monday we will have a working meeting where we will work through all our comments and recommendations,”
– she said.
According to the MP, the ministry is ready to change the draft law and find an optimal solution.
“As of now, I can already tell those graduate students who asked about the possibility of not taking the USQE in a situation where a graduate student is almost ready to defend. Mykhailo Vynnytskyi confirmed that this will be taken into account in the draft resolution, and such postgraduate students will not take the USQE. All other issues will be discussed on Monday. I think that this draft resolution will look somewhat different after the meeting,”
– hryshyna said.
The Unified State Qualification Examination (USQE) is a standardised form of control over the quality and quantity of knowledge and skills acquired by students in Ukraine. Initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science in 2021, it is gradually being introduced in certain specialities and educational degrees.
