The Civil Network OPORA is conducting monitoring of the admission campaign to higher education institutions for the second time. This year, OPORA observers are working in 21 regions and monitoring the work of admission commissions in 30 higher education institutions. \nIn the Volyn region, monitoring of the admission campaign to higher education institutions is carried out by the Volyn Regional Youth Public Organization "Association of Young Reformers (AMoRe)" - a regional partner of the Civil Network OPORA. \nAs part of the monitoring campaign, observers visit admission commissions, communicate with applicants and monitor the work of the "Konkurs" system. Also, a hotline for applicants operates in each of the 21 regions. \n \nBased on the observation results, the following shortcomings in the conduct of the admission campaign were identified: \n\tA large number of beneficiaries among those wishing to study in prestigious specialties: similar to last year, the number of beneficiaries for certain specialties remains very high, as a result of which applicants even with maximum scores lose the chance to be enrolled. Such is the situation with the specialty "international relations" at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv - for 50 budget places, 35 beneficiaries and 17 olympiad winners are already competing. A similar situation exists in Volyn state higher education institutions - Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University and Lutsk National Technical University. This problem could have been prevented by setting a higher passing score, but the educational institutions did not do so. \n\tUnpreparedness of admission commissions of some higher education institutions to work with a large number of applicants, resulting in long queues - in particular, such cases were recorded at Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, Lviv State Medical University, Kyiv National Linguistic University, Sumy State Pedagogical University and several others. \n\tIndividuals have been recorded who appear in the "Konkurs" system as olympiad winners (and thus have the right to admission outside the competition), but their names are not in the list of olympiad winners approved by the Ministry of Education and Science: the Civil Network OPORA plans to verify the names of all persons listed as olympiad winners in order to identify possible violations. No such facts were recorded in Volyn. \n\tThe admission system to the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy of Ukraine and Odesa National Law Academy remains non-transparent: the admission rules of these educational institutions provide for different types of enrollment, in particular through separate institutes that are subdivisions of these higher education institutions. In particular, recruitment to the faculty for training lawyers for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy of Ukraine is carried out "...from among persons who have passed the competition to the Institute for Training Personnel for Prosecution Bodies and to other full-time faculties based on the results of an interview, provided they know two foreign languages," which is a direct violation of the Admission Conditions approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Such a scheme creates a wide field for manipulation and nullifies the requirement for admission to the first year only based on the results of external independent evaluation certificates. \n\tTaras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv set an earlier deadline for the completion of document submission than is provided for by the Admission Conditions approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. Because of this, some applicants may not have time to submit documents. \n\tShortcomings in the operation of the "Konkurs" system: the system effectively did not function during the first week of the admission campaign. At present, access to "Konkurs" in certain regions is complicated due to the large number of requests. In addition, the "How to use" page still does not function. Calls regularly come to OPORA's hotline phones with requests to explain how to find the necessary information on the website. \n\tA large number of technical errors in the data submitted by higher education institutions, recorded in the "Konkurs" system: typical errors are duplication of data of the same applicants in lists for the same specialty; inclusion in the list of people with deliberately incorrect certificate data - when applying based on the results of two exams (maximum possible score - 400), there are applicants with scores exceeding 500; for some universities, there is still no data on any applicant. Detailed information regarding the recorded errors will be passed to the Ministry of Education and Science for response. \n\tObstruction of public observation: at two universities in Kharkiv - Kharkiv National Academy of Municipal Economy and Kharkiv National Medical University - observers were not allowed to conduct public observation. Employees of Kharkiv Polytechnic University also refused to communicate with observers, directing them to the rector, who is virtually impossible to find at the workplace. In Volyn, representatives of admission commissions of higher education institutions facilitate the work of observers. \n \nBased on the preliminary observation results, the Civil Network OPORA developed recommendations that could improve the conduct of this year's admission campaign: \n\timprove the technical support of the "Konkurs" system and conduct additional clarifications with employees of admission commissions who are directly responsible for entering and transmitting data to the "Konkurs" system; \n\tverify the authenticity of medical certificates of applicant-beneficiaries, especially in those specialties that are popular; \n\tcross-check the names of persons who currently appear in the "Konkurs" system as olympiad winners with the lists of prize winners approved by order of the Ministry of Education and Science; \n\timprove public information about the progress of the admission campaign by providing additional telephone lines, as well as accepting and responding to requests via email; \n\tresolve the issue with higher education institutions that ignore the requirement for admission only based on external independent evaluation results.
\nReference: The project "Campaign for Public Monitoring of the External Independent Evaluation Process and the Admission Campaign to Higher Education Institutions in 2009" is implemented by the All-Ukrainian Public Organization "Civil Network OPORA" with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. In the Volyn region, monitoring of the admission campaign to higher education institutions is carried out by the Volyn Regional Youth Public Organization "Association of Young Reformers (AMoRe)" - a regional partner of the Civil Network OPORA. The goal of the project at this stage: assessment of the objectivity and impartiality of the admission process to higher education institutions of Ukraine. Regional coordinator of the project in Volyn - Mykhailo Shelep (mike.shelep@gmail.com). Hotline of the Civil Network OPORA in the Volyn region: mobile 8 (067) 41 65 086