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Expenditures of the consolidated budget on education in 2000-2017, 
mln UAH 
Years 
Expenditures of the consolidated 
budget 
Years 
Expenditures of the consolidated 
budget 
Total 
On 
education 
On 
higher 
education 
Total 
On 
education 
On 
higher 
education 
2000 
48148,6 
7085,5 
2285,5 
2015* 
679871,4 
114193,5 
30981,8 
2005 
141989,5 
26801,8 
7934,1 
2016* 
835832,1 
129437,7 
35233,6 
2010 
377842,8 
79826,0 
24998,4 
2017* 
1056759,9 
177755,7 
38681,1 
* Excluding budgets of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol 
Source: developed by the authors, based on [19]
 
Table 6.2
Quantity of Ukrainian HEIs and students in 2010-2018 
Total
quantity 
2010/11 
2011/12 
2012/13 
2013/14 
2014/15 
2015/16 
2016/17 
2017/18 
HEIs 
813 
805 
785 
767 
664 
659 
657 
661 
including
by 
accreditation 
levels: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I - II levels 
483 
479 
469 
458 
387 
371 
370 
372 
III - IV 
levels 
330 
326 
316 
309 
277 
288 
287 
289 
Students 
2418111 
2246363 
2106174 
1992882 
1689226 
1605270 
1586754 
1538565 
Source: developed by the authors, based on [19]
The total amount of Ukrainian education state budget financing is 
around 2% of GDP, which is over UAH 30 billion per year, largely 
assisted by the local budgets. Strengthening the institutions‟ autonomy 
increases chances for economic development of HEIs and provides 
possibilities for self-reliance and self-financing [22]. An innovative 
project of financing the HE system in Ukraine was developed in 2015, 
and it included the following steps: 1) financing of the activities of HEIs 
out of the state budget at the level of 80% of the previous year expenses; 
2) possibility of obtaining more significant funding by a HEI on 
condition of meeting certain requirements; 3) reduction of financing of 
HEIs by 20% compared to a previous year in case of poor results, while 
successful institutions receive additional funding; 4) creating special 
funds for capital and social expenditures of HEIs. 
Another reality faced by the Ukrainian education system is the “brain 
drain” process of qualified staff in conditions of its low status and 
salaries. A new mechanism for evaluating teachers has been created and 
the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is trying to overthrow 

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the old patterns of behavior, in particular corruption. The main emphasis 
in evaluation is based on international criteria: articles in journals 
indexed in Scopus or Web of Science, and knowledge of English at least 
at B2 level. 
As educational systems‟ types in different countries vary, the 
Ukrainian government attempts to reform the national system according 
to the Western model can dampen all efforts on improving it. So to say 
the idea of “not inventing a bicycle” may not necessarily lead to a 
success. For instance, in Great Britain only such old universities as 
Oxford and Cambridge have been functioning for hundreds of years. 
They had determined the direction of education development trends in 
the UK for a long time, and graduation from these institutions 
guaranteed a good career in the future. However, within the changing 
environment many HEIs were founded with a focus on the needs of the 
labor market. So there was time when graduates from Oxford and 
Cambridge universities had problems with employment because they did 
not meet the requirements of the market [9]. Currently in England, HEIs 
have wider autonomy; they can independently determine their curricula 
and programs. These programs may include variety of subjects 
combinations based on the needs of students, society and the labor 
market. 
In Europe, besides universities, there are also a large number of 
different HEIs types. This contributes to the fact that there is some 
incomprehensibility of the diplomas value and rating when compared to 
each other. In France, such a system of comparison does exist, and 
despite the existence of a large number of HEIs, all of them have 
opportunity to independently determine educational programs. Germany 
and Switzerland, having federal structure of the states, established 
decentralized education systems. HEIs in these countries are legally 
independent and self-governed; they have rights to define the structure 
of management, teaching methods, content of studying and areas of 
research. Italy recognizes the International and European Baccalaureate, 
and has signed agreements with Spain, France and Belgium on the 
automatic recognition of certificates for admission to universities. It also 
signed bilateral agreements with universities of France, Spain and 
Germany, which provide the opportunity to recognize diplomas, which 
in turn increases the opportunity for students‟ employment in these 
countries [3]. 
Relative quality of the Ukrainian HE can be analyzed on the basis of 
world rankings. According to the Global Competitiveness Index of the 

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307 
World Economic Forum in 2017 Ukraine was ranked 35
th
among 137 
analyzed countries by the “Higher education and training” sub index 
(Table 6.3). As it can be seen enrollment into secondary education 
improved while for tertiary education it shows a negative trend. The 
quality of education deteriorated while the situation in professional 
training has improved. 
Table 6.3