You're reading: Education minister considers 80 universities to be optimal number for Ukraine

Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Hanna Novosad considers the three-fold reduction in the number of higher education institutions in Ukraine to be optimal.

“It seems to me that if we had about 80 universities, three times less than now, we would have cleaned the system a little,” Novosad said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question on the optimal number of higher education institutions for Ukraine.

The minister noted that the department would have several tools to influence the optimization of the network of higher education establishments. In particular, from January 1, the principle of financing universities according to their performance indicators began functioning, which will lead to the fact that weak universities simply wouldn’t able to function without proper state funding. Also, from 2021 branches of universities in separate cities should disappear, since their network is bloated, and they often provide a much worse quality of education.

“Thirdly, the Ministry of Education is the founder of universities, so we have administrative leverage and can initiate optimization of certain institutions. Now a big optimization case is being prepared. Soon, there will be a government decision to unite four universities and create one good institution on their basis. It will be a very important success story, especially considering the city where it will be done,” Novosad said.

In addition, according to her, some displaced universities will undergo optimization.

“We are constantly monitoring all of these institutions and, based on its results, a decision will be made on the unification of various universities. By the way, the decision I spoke about on the unification of four universities, will include one of the displaced universities in Kryvy Rih,” added the minister.

At the same time, according to her, there are also such displaced universities that work efficiently, for example, Vasyl Stus Donetsk State University.