A small step forward – the Ministry of Education and Science adopted admission rules to law schools in 2024

In March, the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) enacted the admission rules for higher education, including law, in 2024. This regulation makes slight progress in establishing just and reasonable law school admission requirements and aligning legal education with European standards.

Positive changes:

• Increasing the minimum admission score for bachelor’s degree programs in law to 150 points. This prerequisite also applies to college graduates enrolling in bachelor’s programs. DEJURE Foundation experts consistently emphasise the necessity of raising the minimum admission score. In Ukraine, as in developed democracies, the best and most motivated applicants should pursue legal studies, as tomorrow they will become judges, prosecutors, and attorneys. In 2023, the minimum admission score was 140 points for public-funded studies and 120 points for privately-funded ones.
• Abolition of junior bachelor’s degree in law that was not popular  – 21 students altogether. Nevertheless, this marks another stride towards the standards of EU countries, where future lawyers are not educated below the bachelor’s level, while in Ukraine, it’s almost 20% of law students.
• Introduction of the Unified Entrance Examination (UEE) for admission to doctoral studies, comprising general academic competence and foreign language (English, German, French, or Spanish of one’s choice) tests. Notably, a minimum score of 130 points is required to pass the foreign language test. Additionally, applicants who have successfully passed standardised tests in the relevant foreign language – such as TOEFL, IELTS, TestDaF, DELF, or DALF – can waive this examination.
• Partial regulation of ECTS credit transfer. According to the admission rules 2024, individuals entering law school after college may transfer up to 60 ECTS credits (unless otherwise specified by the bachelor’s degree standard), and after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in another field, at most 120 ECTS credits. 60 ECTS credits equate to 1 year of study. We have drawn attention to this issue while analysing the results of the 2023 admission campaign. At the time, some universities exploited legislative gaps and admitted students directly to the third and sometimes even the fourth year of studies.

What hasn’t changed?

• Admission to bachelor’s programs remains exclusively based on the results of the national multi-subject test (NMT) or external independent testing (EIT) from previous years.
• Enrolling in master’s programs continues to depend solely on the outcomes of the UEE and the Unified Professional Entrance Examination (UPEE).
• Pursuing a master’s program in law is only allowed with a bachelor’s degree in law or international law;
• Distinct regulations for admission and allocation of public funds for institutions with specific training conditions (primarily universities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). It is worth reminding that institutional delineation of legal education and law enforcement training is a key requirement of the EU and G7 ambassadors in the legal education reform. We hope that members of the parliamentary Working Group on Legal Education Reform will consider this and other requirements of our international partners, given their commitment to developing a reform concept by the end of June.
• The state funding remains in place. It hinges upon passing draft law No. 10399 (adopted in the first reading in parliament on March 20, 2024), introducing student grant support. Its approval could lead to a reduction or elimination of public funding.

Thus, the admission rules enacted by the MES represent a slight advancement, such as raising the minimum admission score to 150, introducing the UEE to enrol in the doctorate program, and partial regulation of ECTS credit transfer. We also anticipate the establishment of justified threshold scores for the NMT, UEE, and UPEE.