Educational Сhanges: New Standards

On 28 January 2025, the NGO ‘Progressive and Strong’ organised an online meeting ‘Q&A Session: Changes to the list of fields of knowledge and specialities’ to help educators find answers to numerous questions related to changes in the list of fields of knowledge and specialities. The number of participants was quite impressive. More than 1000 educators joined the event via Zoom and 560 via Facebook.

The moderator of the online meeting, Ivan BALYKIN, welcomed all the participants and speakers and noted that the format of such an event involves active discussion and search for answers to all the questions that the participants asked the speakers during registration, as well as those that can be asked during the live broadcast.

The speakers this time were Oleg SHAROV, Director General of the Directorate of Higher Education and Adult Education, and Maryna MRUGA, state expert of the Expert Group on Higher Education and Adult Education.

Oleg SHAROV made an introductory speech and thanked the NGO ‘Progressive and Strong’ for organising the Q&A session and noted that the online meeting would be useful for streamlining further work plans for the implementation of the new version of the list of fields of knowledge and specialties.

The event focused on the specifics of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1021 dated 30 August 2024, which comes into force on 1 November 2024. The main purpose of the amendments is to bring the national list in line with the International Standard Classification of Education ISCED-F 2013 to ensure correct statistical international comparisons.

According to Oleg SHAROV, there are formal and informal reasons for this. Formal reasons are Ukraine's obligations in the context of European integration in terms of statistics, not education. We must bring Ukrainian educational statistics in line with the European standard.

Changes to the list of fields of knowledge occur approximately every nine years, and the current adjustments are aimed at updating and improving educational standards.

We first started moving towards the international standard classification of education in the 2015 list. In 2021, official harmonization was introduced, and the codes and titles of the International Standard Classification of Education were linked. And in 2024, this process will be completed by bringing the list of industries in line with the international standard classification.

Speaker Oleg SHAROV also stressed that the list of specialities in Ukraine corresponds to 70% of the detailed industries, which is in line with what is used in the world. As for the list of industries, it coincides with the international list, except for one industry, namely Security and Defense.

As for the informal reasons for changes in fields of knowledge and specialities, this is due to the desacralization of the concept of specialities. The Law of Ukraine ‘On Higher Education’ of 2014 directly stipulates that higher education students are trained in educational programmes. That is, not by specialities. The speciality remains a statistical unit and an echo of the past.

We need to be as flexible and ready for changes as possible, sometimes very rapid ones, said Mr Oleg.
A new generation of competency-based standards is expected to be developed and implemented by 2027. This will require significant work from the educational community.

The impact of the changes on the training of higher and vocational pre-university education students, accreditation expertise, and the 2025 admission campaign was also discussed.

Applicants who entered educational institutions before the entry into force of this resolution will continue their studies in the chosen fields of knowledge and specialities. Applicants will be re-enrolled in educational programmes in the specialities of the relevant year of enrollment.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine plans to develop guidelines on the compliance of educational programmes with new specialities and determine the procedure for re-issuing licenses in connection with the changes in legislation.

Despite the detailed discussion, educators still have many questions about the practical implementation of the changes. Further consultations and explanations from the Ministry of Education and Science will be provided soon.