Ukrainian National Examination Reform Receives $5 Million in Support from U.S. Government

The Open Society Institute and International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) in Ukraine have in recent years worked with the American Councils for International Education to continue offering technical support to the Ukrainian government in introducing standardized external testing as a mandatory criterion for university admissions. In April 2007, the U.S. government provided $5 million to the American Institutes for Research and the American Councils for International Education to contribute building a testing system in Ukraine.

IRF and the Education Support Program have invested substantial human and financial resources into the testing project, which advocated fair and transparent entrance examination reform in higher education institutions in Ukraine over the last six years.

The IRF testing project started in 2001 with technical support from ESP. The first certified testing was conducted in 2003. Since then, the number of school leavers has increased year by year (2003: more than 3,000; 2004: 4,500; 2005: 9,000; 2006: 42,000; 2007: 120,000). Initially there were only three universities committed to fighting corruption at the tertiary level through introduction of external exams. Over the years the number of universities accepting the results of these examinations expanded, despite strong interests in perpetuating existing bribery and malpractice.

In 2004, the Testing Technologies Center, established by IRF to implement the project, prepared recommendations on the introduction of the external examination reform for the government, with technical assistance from ESP. This document formed the basis of a decree on the introduction of external testing and quality monitoring issued by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2004. This was a real breakthrough in the fight against corrupt practices during entrance examinations to tertiary institutions.

Additionally, the results of the pilot project were scaled up and became the basis for government reform. The practice of oral examinations during entrance exams to tertiary institutions, which was open to manipulation and malpractice, was to be gradually substituted by standardized examination. This process of reform accelerated after the Orange Revolution.

A 2005 presidential decree declared that transition to the external examination system for university entrance should be carried out in 2005-2006. A subsequent Cabinet of Ministers' decree stated that 2006 should be an experimental year, and 2007-2008 should be transition years for external examination reform to be implemented nationwide.

In 2006, the Ukrainian government introduced a national examination reform, which linked secondary-school exit exams with higher-education entrance exams (Matura). All universities were obliged to accept external testing certificates in lieu of entrance exams. The government allocated substantial resources for these changes and established the Center for Educational Quality Assessment to head the reform.

Many lessons can be drawn from the implementation of this project. Foremost is that it takes considerable time to achieve sustainable results on the scale attained in this case. It took at least two years of preparatory work and almost five hard years of implementing the project. However, without the committed project leader and the team of people who believed in the project and were prepared to work virtually around the clock to achieve the desired change, it would have been impossible to achieve what was done in Ukraine. On this note, ESP would like to extend special thanks to Liliya Hrynevych, former project manager, and the extended team of local and international experts who contributed selflessly to initiation and implementation of the national examination reform.

Special appreciation goes to IRF management and the foundation board for continuous advice and critical support during times when misunderstandings with high-ranking education officials on the social impact of the project required direct involvement of foundation representatives; as well as for investing considerable effort in making this pilot project a national reform.

For more information, please contact Natalia Shablya nshablya@osi.hu or Anna Toropova a.toropova@ukrtest.org.