Human rights defenders call for finalisation of the draft law which should encourage internally displaced persons to get education in Ukraine

At the beginning of January 2024, the Verkhovna Rada registered a draft law No. 10399 “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Financing Higher Education and Providing State Targeted Support to its Applicants”. Despite the fact that this project is supposed to reform the system of financing higher education, it also has several shortcomings, which are pointed out by human rights defenders.

Thus, the Members of the Coalition that take care of issues of protection of the rights of victims of armed aggression against Ukraine welcomes the state’s efforts to reform the education system, as well as enshrine at the legislative level the possibility to use special admission conditions for education for internally displaced persons and those living in occupation.

At the same time, according to human rights defenders, the impossibility of free education with scholarships at preparatory courses of higher education institutions will negatively affect applicants among internally displaced persons and even demotivate them to get education in Ukraine. And this draft law proposes to exclude the provision on the law “On higher education” that people living in the occupation can, if they wish, one-time use the right to free education at preparatory courses of higher education institutions.

Another problem is that the provision of targeted state support proposed by the draft law may be unpredictable. According to the proposed changes, state support will be provided to the most vulnerable categories of applicants and citizens in general. However, such assistance will be provided only if the family’s financial and property status meets certain criteria. Human rights defenders note that the criteria for selecting applicants and students among IDPs will be quite strict and may not take into account the vulnerability of people who were forced to move.

Therefore, human rights defenders called on the parliament to take their position into account in order to provide an opportunity for Ukrainian internally displaced persons to get education and preserve intellectual potential within the country.

The full position you can find here (in Ukrainian).