New entrance exam levels playing field for Ukrainian graduate law students

Ukrainian students applying for graduate programmes in law this year have taken the country’s first standardized entrance exam. The new exam, co-developed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, aims to level the playing field for law school applicants by reducing opportunities for corruption and ensuring that successful applicants have a basic grasp of fundamental legal concepts, critical thinking skills, and the ability to communicate in a foreign language.

“The exam ensures that conditions are fair for applicants,” said Oleksandr Bidnoshyya, a student who took the exam in Kyiv and plans to apply for graduate law programmes in the capital.

Under the previous system, each university administered its own test. Given that Ukraine has 116 law faculties, this meant a bewildering array of differing standards for educating and training future law professionals. Universities set their own rules for admitting students and granting law credentials, a process that led to widely varying levels of legal education and opened the door to corruption in the admissions process.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine partnered with the Ministry of Education and Science to develop a new standardized entrance exam for all students applying to graduate programmes in law. More than 50 professors from all over Ukraine provided input for the creation of a high-quality test database. Last year the exam was piloted in nine law schools in Ukraine, and this year the Project Co-ordinator supported its finalization and institutionalization.

The new exam is one of the key components of efforts by the OSCE and the Ministry of Education and Science to reform legal education and reform the judicial system more broadly.

Among those who were involved in drafting the new exam was Oksana Panchak, Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology Law and Criminology at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

The key ways that I think this exam will impact the legal education system is by introducing objectivity, equal conditions for everyone, and by ensuring that knowledge is the only way to pass. In developing the test, the authors and reviewers focused on making sure the exam measures understanding of law and its application and can’t just be passed by memory. Those who are admitted should not only know the law but also know how to apply it.

Oksana Panchak Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology Law and Criminology at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

Lilia Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science, said the exam was an important first step in improving the quality of legal education in Ukraine.

According to an OSCE report, approximately 34,000 law students graduated from Ukrainian institutions in 2010. By comparison, around 6,000 law students graduated in Poland, a country of similar size, that year. The large difference in part reflected low entrance requirements at law faculties in Ukraine and the absence of standardized curricula for granting law credentials.

We see this test as an important milestone in improving the quality of legal education in Ukraine,”Hrynevych said. “Making the admissions process more fair and transparent is a priority in pursuing reform. Seeing this test successfully implemented makes us optimistic about further reform efforts as we move forward with our partners.”

Lilia Hrynevychk Minister of Education and Science

Around 17,000 law students applying for graduate programmes sat the new exam, with nearly 80 percent passing the test.

Members of the working group were satisfied with the results, predicting that the exam would also serve as a rating tool for law schools, promoting higher quality legal education.

“The introduction of this exam is a first step towards introducing a unified exam for access to the legal profession upon graduation” said Natalia Stupnytska, National Programme Manager at the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

The Project Co-ordinator is also assisting in development of a broader strategy for legal education reform, including new standards for legal education, new legal curricula, and training educators. In 2017 the PCU held six training courses for law professors on core legal disciplines as well as adult-learning methodology. It also facilitated an exchange programme for professors to help promote mobility among faculties and to support the exchange of best practices among educators.