Without DPA and with NMT from previous years: The Council prepares new admission rules for 2027

In Ukraine, it is proposed to legislatively regulate the conduct of the state final certification and the admission campaign in 2027 according to special rules. Draft law No. 15440 was developed in accordance with the Plan of legislative work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for 2026.

The authors of the draft law explain the need for changes by the security situation and risks for applicants and education workers. Under conditions of Russian aggression, it is necessary to ensure a flexible and safe admission algorithm to institutions of professional pre-higher and higher education.

Admission to universities — by special procedure

The draft law provides that admission for higher education in 2027 will be carried out according to the admission procedure defined by the central executive authority in the field of education and science. At the same time, the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" regarding the admission campaign will not apply.

Competitive selection of applicants based on complete general secondary education, as well as the educational qualification level of junior specialist, educational-professional degree of professional junior bachelor, and higher education degree of junior bachelor, is proposed to be conducted based on the results of entrance exams from 2024–2027.

Thus, for admission in 2027, the results of entrance exams not only from 2027 but also from the previous three years — 2024, 2025, and 2026 — may be taken into account.

Which subjects will be mandatory

According to the draft law, entrance exams for participation in the competitive selection for higher education will include testing in four subjects.

The mandatory subjects will be:

• Ukrainian language;
• Mathematics;
• History of Ukraine.

The fourth subject can be chosen by the applicant from the following list:

• Foreign language;
• Biology;
• Geography;
• Physics;
• Chemistry;
• Ukrainian literature.

Thus, the entrance exams will consist of three mandatory subjects and one subject of choice.

Separate rules are also proposed for admission to professional pre-higher education institutions. In 2027, admission to them should also be carried out according to the procedure defined by the central executive authority in the field of education and science, without complying with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On Professional Pre-Higher Education."

It is proposed not to conduct the state final certification in 2027

The draft law proposes to exempt all students who complete the relevant level of general secondary education in 2027 from the DPA.

Thus, if the draft law is adopted, graduates completing the relevant level of complete general secondary education in 2027 will not take the state final certification.

In particular, financial support for organizing and conducting entrance exams for higher education is proposed to be provided from expenditures envisaged by budget legislation under budget program 2201470 "Implementation of external evaluation and monitoring of education quality by the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment and its regional units."

Other sources of funding not prohibited by law may also be used.

At the same time, the authors of the draft law note that its implementation will not require additional funding from state or local budgets.

Recall that, as reported by the "Judicial and Legal Newspaper", the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Andriy Butenko discussed possible changes in the organization of the National Multi-Subject Test with the director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment, Tetyana Vakulenko. The Ministry of Education noted that the full-scale war has significantly changed the conditions for preparing and taking the NMT, in particular, applicants face shelling, air raid alerts, relocations, and distance learning. Therefore, the ministry plans to find ways to make the procedure more flexible and reduce the burden on participants, especially from frontline communities.

The need for changes is also linked to problems during this year’s NMT, where due to a prolonged air raid alert in the Odesa region, test participants had to spend almost 13 hours in shelters.

Draft law No. 15440 is positioned as a response to security challenges caused by the full-scale war. At the same time, the document itself does not specify how exactly the entrance exams will be conducted in 2027 or whether applicants will take all four NMT subjects in one day or on different days. The draft law also does not provide for the cancellation of the NMT. Instead, it establishes the possibility of conducting competitive selection based on the results of entrance exams from 2024–2027. This possibility was already available to applicants during this year’s admission campaign, but to participate in the competition, applicants could submit NMT certificates from 2023.

However, the detailed algorithm for conducting entrance exams must be defined in the relevant procedure. The draft law provides that if adopted, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine must ensure the adoption of regulatory legal acts provided by this law within three months from the date the law comes into force. If adopted, the draft law will come into force the day after its publication.

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