Number of new male students over 30 has increased 23 times in 2 years, - NGL.media. INFOGRAPHICS
In the last two years, the number of men getting higher education after the age of 30 has increased sharply in Ukraine. Probably, this is due to attempts to evade mobilization to the troops.
This conclusion was reached by NGL.media journalists after analyzing data from open sources, Censor.NET reports.
"Provided that last year about 85 thousand men of conscription age took advantage of the opportunity to obtain a legal deferment from mobilization, in the estimation of NGL.Media, then this year we are already talking about 110 thousand," the publication says.
In general, according to the results of the publication's analysis, men among first-year students of the fee-based mode of study in 2023 increased to 70%. Their average age increased to 27 years. The most striking increase in the number of male students is noticeable in the 30+ and 40+ age categories.
The average cost of a year of study in Ukrainian higher education institutions increased to UAH 23.7 thousand. But the conditions for fee-paying admission remained simplified – for some specialties, a simple interview or a motivation letter was enough.
"Based on the average cost of education and the number of entrants, this year Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions received more than 2.6 billion UAH only at the expense of men who are not of student age. Last year, such additional income amounted to UAH 1.7 billion," the publication says.
Based on the statistics of the Ministry of Education and Science, the publication has created a detailed comparative database of all Ukrainian higher education institutions. The leader among them was the Kharkiv Ukrainian State University of Railway Transport: there, the number of males in fee-based mode of study in the first year, compared with the pre-war year 2021, increased 20 times.
In the pre-war years, the most popular universities used no more than 20% of their quota for paid students. Therefore, the sharp growth of persons in fee-based mode of study in 2022-2023 generally fits into the standards established more than 15 years ago, - the publication notes.
"According to the analysis of NGL.media, in total this year, 71 thousand men over the age of 30 entered the educational institution for paid full-time education, including almost 23 thousand of them who went to a lower or the same educational level that they already had," the material says.
The Ministry of Education, as NGL.media points out, does not try to reduce the existing quotas for fee-based modes of study or to introduce minimum selection for contractors through testing or exams. Instead, four draft laws have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada that are supposed to deal with the problem, but each of them restricts the rights of potential students.
