"Even in the poorest countries in Europe, students pay 3000 euros a year." The Ministry of Education and Science talks about raising university tuition fees

Deputy Head of the Ministry of Education and Science Mykhailo Vynnytskyi believes that Ukraine should raise the cost of contract education in higher education institutions. Grants for university education will make education more expensive in the future.

In the Dopamine for Education podcast, the deputy minister emphasized that universities cannot train a specialist for 25 thousand a year. Even in the poorest countries in Europe, university tuition starts at 3 thousand euros (over 132 thousand hryvnias).

"Quality education should be expensive. As a teacher and as a person who knows a little about the financial part of university management, I don't understand how it is possible to train any higher education specialist for 25 thousand hryvnias. And we have higher education institutions that offer this. They are mostly private, but still 25 thousand hryvnias: come and pay. It's just buying a diploma. This is the price for a year. I don't understand how this can be done," he said.

According to Vynnytskyi, in Romania and Bulgaria, the cost of studying at higher education institutions starts at 3 thousand euros. At the same time, in Germany, the cost of training one student is 6-8 thousand euros per year.

In Ukraine, the average price of contract education at universities is 1 thousand euros (46-47 thousand hryvnias). As a result, teachers have low salaries and education is of poor quality.

"This means that our teachers earn little. This means that we have low quality education, because obviously, teachers are not particularly interested. We need to raise the average cost of training one specialist. Again, we can say this in a very socialist way. Let the state print money and... It doesn't work that way. The state has no more money to invest. So we need to create a system of co-financing. Partly from the state, and partly from the private sector. And in this way, education will become more expensive – education will become more qualitative," said the representative of the Ministry of Education and Science.

He added that raising the average cost of training one student is not a popular idea, but it is another of the things behind the grants. It is not only about fairness but also about the quality of higher education in Ukraine.

In addition, the draft law No. 10399, which will be voted on in November in the Rada, contains the idea that a student studying on a budget will have certain responsibilities to the state as a customer. In particular, the state will offer the student a first job.

"Someone might call it working out, but I really don't like this word, because I don't think it's you who is working out your duty. It's the state that should offer a competitive first job. This can be done among doctors, it can be done with teachers, with some other specialties related to the public sector. But I repeat once again: with a competitive salary, it is not about serfdom," Vynnytskyi said.

In other words, state-funded positions will have certain responsibilities in the future, but a grant will not.

"A grant is an investment in the future of the state, where the taxpayer says we need to invest in a young person. A government order is an order for a specialist for the public sector. And this means certain responsibilities of that specialist to the public sector," the Deputy Minister explained.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, the Ministry of Education and Science plans to increase funding for training for specialties that the state will need in the future. We are talking about doctors, teachers, psychologists, civil engineers, and agronomists.

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