On 5 September Civil Network OPORA announced final record of the results of public observation during admission campaign to establishments of higher education on the press-conference in Lviv. According to the coordinator of observation Olha Streliuk, main features on which observers at this year admission campaign focused became the system “Electronic admission” and charging extra points to the winners of all-Ukrainian competitions and to the winners of the 3rd stage of all-Ukrainian contests determined by the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports (MESYS) of Ukraine. About this, and also about basic problems in organization of admission campaigns by administration of universities, appeals of applicants and stories about defending their rights you can read in the report of the Lviv office.

General opinion on the conduction of admission campaign in Lviv region: pluses and minuses.

Admission campaign 2011 started on the 1st of July and draw strong reaction of mass media. Firstly, last year experience of multiple lines of applicants and their parents intensified this interest. Secondly, the novelty of this year campaign - "Electronic Admission» that should have secured quick and easy presentation of documents for participation in the competition.

Taking into consideration, that terms of documents submission was considerably prolonged in comparison to the last year’s, and the number of this year’s graduates was lower, observers in Lviv region haven’t noticed any applicants crowding at the doors of admission commissions. Most applicants came for submission of documents not in the first days of admission campaign, but between 5 and 15 July. At the same time, admission commissions had been working on the last days of campaign, even on Sunday, the 31st of July some applicants presented their documents for certain specialties.

The biggest novelty of the admission campaign 2011 became “Electronic admission”. We can give some reasons that were constantly drawing attention of public, mass-media and applicants. Firstly, it's the question of law regulation and legislative grounds of functioning of the EA, which is still unresolved. This interest was intensified by legitimate claims from some public figures against illegal use of personal data presented by applicants through Internet. Secondly, the experimental novelty started to function in a proper way starting only from the second week of the admission campaign, after all establishments of higher education received proper software. However, MESYS of Ukraine in every possible way tried to refute the fact that EA is not perfect and has shortcomings in the work. Thirdly, even having adjusted the process of proper registration of applicants through “Electronic admission”, the Ministry of Education couldn’t organize steady process of transferring information about applicants who registered for an admission to the specific university. Technical personnel had to search the data through the base and manually, one by one, transfer it to the system “Contest” instead of automatic including data of applicants to the rating of the certain university. Fourthly, the Ministry constantly published impressive quantitative indicators of registration of entrants through EA. Nevertheless, the bulk of this number provided staff of the admission commissions who entered data of applicants to the base with their own hands, what is quite not their duty.  In result, most of the applicants personally came to the admission commissions of universities to present copies of necessary documents.

Another peculiarity of admission campaign 2011 became charging extra points to the winners of the 4th stage of all-Ukrainian school academic competitions in basic subjects, and to the winners of the 3rd stage of all-Ukrainian contests – defending researches of students-members of the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.  Besides that, extra points were charged to the graduates of preparatory departments of universities. As for extra points for graduating from preparatory departments, observers of the Civil Network OPORA in Lviv region haven’t noticed cases of their addition to the total grade of applicants in the highest possible number (20 points). Some graduates and their parents even complained on the small quantity of points (2,6; 2,8) that they were charged when entering the university and on the lack of correspondence between points they got and money they spent on preparatory courses. This examples show that neither patents nor applicants understand, that paid preparatory courses don’t guarantee entering the university, but they help to extend knowledge obtained in school.

A situation with charging extra points for graduates who made remarkable progress in studying basic subjects turned out to be more complicated. We remind that according to conditions of admission in 2011, extra points were charged only on basic subjects determined by the university. During monitoring of the system "Contest" observers detected situations when extra points were charged to the corresponding specialties, but they were not basic for admission to the specific areas of preparation. The situation may be explained to some extend by the fact that some universities received sets of documents for several specialties at the same time, and automatically made notes on submitting documents for a number of specialties. But problem is that for similar areas of preparation universities determined different basic subjects. For example, on Law department of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv the basic subject was Ukrainian language and literature. In this case, extra points for winning all-Ukrainian academic competition on the Ukrainian language and literature were charged, but on the specialty “International relations” where competitive examination is identical but basic subject is English language–points for Ukrainian language and literature couldn’t be charged. We could also assume that technical personnel that received documents from applicants wasn’t always informed about all nuances of such procedure, at least on the beginning of the admission campaign. Observers informed corresponding establishments of higher education about all detected inaccuracies. For example, admission boards of Lviv Polytechnic National University and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv took into consideration comments of our observers and verified all charged extra points.

Essential problems of admission campaign organization in Lviv region

Overall, the level of admission campaign organization is quite high by the results of monitoring in Lviv region.

The biggest problem of its organization at the beginning, which although wasn’t caused by universities, was the absence of information about quotes of the state demand and purpose-oriented aim which should have been approved by MESYS of Ukraine. Entrants have got no information about the number of budget places in the universities in 2011 up to 10-11 days. Places for applicants who had right for admission out-of-competition depended on this number, so number of places for entrants without privileges could be even less. Higher educational institutions, which state demand on some specialties was reduced from 15 to 100% in comparison to the last year, immediately felt political pressure of the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports. First of all, we are talking about the administration of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv which was not very loyal to the executives of the Ministry during the last year and a half, passing critical judgments concerning some reforms and initiatives. Moreover, student's performances "Against Tabachnyk" which are still carried on were tacitly supported. That’s why reducing of the state demand in establishments of higher education was understood as a peculiar punishment of dissidents and named as a political affair. It this situation, the only right decision should become elaboration of unified criteria for allocation of state funds among higher educational institutions that would govern the Ministry regardless of its party affiliation or the political situation in the country. Besides that, MESYS of Ukraine should publish the quota of the state demand for universities in 2012 before 1 June 2012 – till EIT starts.

Another problem became known from appeals of applicants through the “hotline” number, yet it wasn’t that widespread. It concerned entrance examinations and the date of its results publication in particular.

The first appeal came from applicants that were passing admission examinations in the Technical College. Examination results should have been published on the next day, and since the information wasn't provided in time, entrants appealed to the Civil Network OPORA. After we contacted the admission commission of Lviv Polytechnic National University which Technical college is subordinate to, it became clear that cooperation with its commission is insufficiently adjusted, since this educational institution is a part of the university structure for one year only. However, having clarified the circumstances, we’ve learned that due to a technical hitch with the electricity supply to the building after the entrance examinations all the system that was supposed to calculate results and determine the rating failed, that’s why it took more time for its resumption. As a result, lists were published with a delay of 1,5 days. However, we were surprised by the fact that the admission commission of Technical college didn’t find it necessary to explain the delay of results publication to applicants and their parents, and gave this information only after the request of the public organization.

Besides that, entrants of the Institute of architecture at the Lviv Polytechnic National University applied to observers.

According to their parents, the results of entrance examinations of 25, 26 and 27 July were published only on July 31 in the afternoon, on the information page of Lviv Polytechnic National University. Since the results of examinations were published on the last day of the admission campaign, not all applicants, especially from the other regions, were able to appeal their results. For entrants who managed to exercise this right, the meeting of the Appealing Committee took place but only on 2 and 3 August, when the first rating lists of students recommended for admission to budget places were already formed. As a result – no appeal was satisfied. After the meeting of the Appealing Committee, entrants were deprived the right to take pictures of their work (draft, sketch, composition) which they made at the creative entrance examinations.

Observers of the Civil Network OPORA applied to the university by sending appropriate information request to get some explanation. In the answer to request was mentioned that the results were published only on 31 July in consequence of “hard twenty-four-hour work”. On that day only 8 applicants (1,3%) submitted appeals, what according to the letter "is the proof of trust and high quality of the examination board". The meeting of the Appealing Committee took place twice - 2 and 3 August, but there was no number of satisfied appeals in the letter. Besides that, the admission commission indicated that “Ukrainian and international practice of conducting creative entrance examinations doesn’t provide possibility of photographing of works, as long as they might be subjected to further computer processing and editing”.

Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to find out if there are any legal grounds that permit or forbid making copies of the results of entrance examinations. Although the paragraph Ukrainian universities admission requirements 2011 of the Article 21 (Additional admission to universities and storage of works of applicants) provides that works of applicants who were not enrolled to the university (including rough copy of the oral examination, interview sheets) made on entrance examinations, creative competitions, professional testing, interviews, shall be archived for one year. If such entrant is recommended to admission to the other university by the results of current entrance examinations, his works shall be filed to that university upon request.

Entrance examinations definitely leave space for doubts in objectivity of evaluation of such competitions. Still, we should also remember about subjectivity of parents who try to justify gaps of their offsprings in any possibly way, yet they too often refuse to lay a claim openly to a particular establishment of higher education and defend their children’s right for free education.

As a way out, we propose that MESYS would provide in the new conditions of admission to universities the deadline for publishing the entrance examinations and creative competitions results, but not later than one day before the announcement of the rating lists of applicants recommended for admission to budget places in university.

What should be mentioned when talking about shortcoming of the admission campaign organization, is the problem of entering the University for obtaining Master’s degree.  The opportunity guaranteed by Bologna Process for obtaining Master’s degree in different university from where was got Bachelor degree not always could have been taken by applicants in 2011. We remind that the deadline for submission of applications with the original diploma of obtaining Bachelor's degree was 20 July. But the problem was that MESYS hadn’t delivered appropriate documents (original diplomas) to all universities in time. That’s why universities couldn’t give diplomas to the students, and students who wanted to study further in the other university couldn’t file documents to Admission commissions. Of course, we shouldn’t blame the Ministry only. Most of the universities are not interested in loosing intelligent and gifted students, that's why they only benefit from the delay of the diplomas delivery. We should also remember that universities don’t want to give places for obtaining Master ’s degree for “strange” students; entrants from other universities rarely can claim budget places for obtaining Master’s degree, therefore universities only win when diplomas are not given due to time. To make this reform be useful also to students, we recommend to provide passing state examinations and qualification projects of students who are getting Educational-qualification level (EQL) “Bachelor” the month before the deadline of submitting documents for submission on studying for EQL "Master". Issuing diplomas with the degree of “Bachelor” shall be finished a week before the end of the term for receiving documents from applicants for MA course in the Admission commissions.

And the last – shortcomings of the system “Competition” which aim is to provide openness and transparency during the admission to the establishments of higher education of Ukraine.  One side of the problem noticed by observers of the Civil Network OPORA was difficulty in loading a webpage during the first 10 days of the admission campaign, when all entrants try to check if they are in rating lists. The other and the most important, was the unwillingness of the university to make full use of the portal for informing people about the course of presentation of documents and publication of the rating lists of the students recommended for admission.

As for the stage of submission of documents, for example, in Lviv National M.V.Lysenko Music Academy observers noticed, that information about the number of applications that were put in for the different specializations within the orchestral faculty is absent. In other words, competition for teaching violin, cello, contrabass, and harp was unknown, as in the "Contest" system all the tools have been united into the orchestral department. During conversation with members of admission commission of the university we learned that the system “Contest” technically doesn’t allow publication of such information, but the university will definitely ask the administration of the “Contest” to give an advice about that. After some time all shortcomings were corrected, and the Academy page now contains all the necessary information.

Most remarks on the filling of the system “Contest” observers of the Civil Network OPORA made on the stage of publishing the rating lists of students recommended for admission to budget and paid places. On the 1st of January some universities provided no information about admission applicants to the budget (Lviv Institute of Economy and Tourism) and commercial form of education in the system "Contest". To some extend it can be explained that conditions of admission to the establishments of higher education 2011 regulated by MESYS of Ukraine oblige to provide information about the course of submission of applications for entering institutions of the III and IV accreditation levels, but there is nothing specific about the stage of admission of entrants. That’s why most of the universities decide by themselves, whether to publish this information or not.

We propose the Ministry to supplement the paragraph with the conditions of admission that concern providing open and transparent process of entering universities. We also suggest providing information about the process of admission campaign through the system “Contest” on all of it’s stages – from filing documents and passing creative competitions to actual admission to studying regardless of the form.

Main types of appeals from applicants and their examples

The greatest amount of appeals to the organization came at the stage of giving documents - entrants didn’t possess legal information concerning the rules of taking documents by admission commissions.  This problem is mostly comes from the legal unawareness of applicants and their parents than from shortcomings in the work of admission commissions. Entrants frequently issued wishful thinking, but it wasn’t fixed by normative and legal acts which regulate the admission’s process.

When the first stage of admission of applicants by quotas of state order started, entrants began to appeal with requests to explain the terms of admission to the commercial form of study in the establishments of higher education where no quotas of state order are. It turned out that such educational institutions have the right to begin admission at the expense of individuals since August 1, while applicants still hope to get into the second or third wave of admission for studying on budgetary funds in other institutions.

Consequently, the commercial educational establishments try to prevent the shortage of students and start the stage of admitting from 1 August. Applicants that filed documents for admission to the university on budget places but didn’t manage to get into the list of recommended for admission in the first place are afraid that they may not pass the next stages and choose to study in less prestige commercial institution, where they will pass 100% and the price for studying is lower.

Stories of success

The biggest amount of stories of success in CN OPORA is connected not to the defending of legal rights of applicants for the first year of studying, but of those entrants who showed their will to obtain Master's degree in the other university.

The problem about which organization was mostly appealed to, and which was positively resolved, concerns the delay of giving diplomas to the students with Bachelor’s degree.

A) The first appeal was recorded in the Lviv office of the CN OPORA on 8 July from the applicant which has obtained EQL “Bachelor” in Lviv National Agricultural University, but the Master’s degree he wanted to obtain at the Lviv Polytechnic National University. However, the admission commission of Polytechnic University couldn’t take documents because he hadn’t the original diploma cum laude that would confirm obtained Educational-qualification level. In native university the graduate was informed that he can get the diploma only in the end of the month, because it was still in print in Kyiv. Taking into consideration that deadline for reception of applications was on 20 July, the entrant took a risk of loosing chance to continue studying in the university.

CN OPORA applied for explanation to the department of higher education of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS). In the answer we got information that on 11 July the Training center of agricultural policy took produced diplomas to transfer them to the representative of the Lviv National Agricultural University. Diplomas cu laude, according to the letter, were going to be given to graduates of different Educational-qualification levels only before 15 July. With the answer to the informational request and application for receiving the certificate that would confirm obtained EQL, the graduate went to the admission commission of the university.

Administration of the university immediately reacted and on 14 July the graduate got his bachelor diploma cum laude at the reception of the department. The applicant successfully presented all the necessary documents to the admission commission of the Lviv Polytechnic National University and, after passing entrance examinations, he was enrolled for studying in magistracy for the costs of physical persons.

B) With the similar problem applied graduates of the Lviv Institute of Interregional Academy of Personnel Management. They couldn’t get diplomas for further entering magistracy in the other university, and the possible date of receiving it was around the beginning of September 2011. The Civil Network OPORA appealed again to MESYS of Ukraine with the letter, and asked to give exhaustive information about the situation of giving diplomas in the Lviv Institute of IAPM. It turned out, that state examinations and defense of diploma works in university were passed in mid-July, that’s why the date of giving diplomas was delayed. Besides that, applicants asked for our help only after 20 July, when the stage of admission documents for full-time studying on magistracy has ended. After our interference, diplomas were given before 30 July and graduates were able to file them and pass entrance examinations for studying in other universities on the corresponding course.

C) An applicant who entered the National Academy of Arts on budget form of studying was refused to be given original documents in the Higher Professional Art School where she was also studying on budget form. At first, the board of university informed student that she can be expelled from university only after 1 September, when the learning process begins. After we advised the girl to ask for an official refusal, the School has found another argument. It turned out that the certificate and annex to it couldn’t be given, because the secretary who keeps the keys to the cabinet with necessary documents is away. In result, only after the direct phone talk of the Civil Network OPORA observer and the Deputy Director of the Higher Professional Art School the student was given her documents. As an explanation, School administration gave information that the educational institution was going to have problems with the Accounting Chamber, which gave state funds for education of that student for the whole year, and she left it. The argument of the right of applicant to choose educational institution, and the priority of studying in the higher educational institution was ignored by the administration of the Art School, but the situation resulted in favour of the student.