April 30, Sumy. The round table “Features of admissions to higher education in 2010: advantages and disadvantages” took place in the press center SumyNews. It was held by OPORA with the support of International “Renaissance” Foundation.
The round table was attended by representatives of Sumy universities, secondary schools and local authorities:
- Vyacheslav BILKOVSKYY, responsible for independent external testing (EIT) in the Sumy region
- Viktor BOBYRENKO, Head of Youth, Family and Sports department of the Sumy Regional State Administration
- Oksana KHORUZHENKO, coordinator of educational projects of the Center for Regional Policy Studies (Sumy)
- Gennady KASYANENKO, executive secretary of the admission board of Sumy State Pedagogical University of A. Makarenko (SumDPU)
- Roman VASKIN, responsible for the testing of Sumy State University (SSU)
- Dmytro OLEKSYCH, executive secretary of the admission board of the Ukrainian Academy of Banking (UABS)
Participants discussed the implemented model of admission to higher education and the ways to improve it in future; evaluated the effectiveness of external assessment (EIA) and its impact on quality of graduates.
Overall, the current system of EIT was rated as very effective. However, among the issues the participants discussed is the loss of objectivity in external testing by taking into account school diplomas that do not guarantee the same quality of education today. Also, the test in language of ethnic minorities facilitated the entry to individual applicants, but worsened their position in the learning process. One more problem is the absence of young career, a large number of beneficiaries among students and others.