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ACCREDITATION AND LICENSING
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- Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:20
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The modern quality assurance system in higher education was stipulated by the Law of Ukraine On Higher Education (2014) and Law of Ukraine On Education (2017). The current system has being iunder development, laws are being updated, and other legislation is being developed. The National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance was established.
The quality assurance system in higher education includes internal quality assurance systems of higher institution operations and external assurance systems of the quality of educational activities of higher education institutions and the quality of higher education. The legislation also defines quality assurance systems for the activities of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance, independent quality assurance institutions and quality assurance of higher education.
The quality of higher education in Ukraine is defined as the compliance of educational activities and learning outcomes with the requirements of legislation and standards of higher education, professional, international standards (if applicable), as well as the needs of stakeholders, and is ensured by the implementation of internal and external quality assurance procedures.
The system of external quality assurance of educational activities of higher education institutions and the quality of higher education includes procedures for licensing educational activities, accreditation of educational programs, institutional accreditation, etc. However, the introduction of institutional accreditation of higher education institutions and the development of the corresponding provisions was postponed for the duration of martial law in Ukraine and six months from the date of its abolition.
Licensing of educational activities
Licensing is a procedure for checking the ability of a legal entity to conduct educational activities in accordance with the relevant licensing conditions.
Licensing of educational activities of higher education institutions is mandatory.
Licensing is done by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and issued with no expiration date since 2015.
Since 2021, licensing of educational activities of higher education institutions has been done for each level of higher education. Additionally licensing of educational programs is mandatory for programs that lead to professional qualifications in professions for which additional regulation is required (List of specialties leading to professional qualifications in professions for which additional regulation is required).
Before 2021, licensing of education institutions and also each specialty at each level of higher education was mandatory.
The requirements that must be fulfilled by the higher education institutions are stipulated by the Licensing Conditions for Conducting of Educational Activities.
Licensing of higher education institutions of foreign countries or their separate branches/campuses that operate on the territory of Ukraine is also mandatory.Accreditation of educational programs
Accreditation of an educational program is an evaluation of an educational program and/or educational activities of a higher education institution under this program for the purpose of ensuring and improving the quality of higher education.
Before 2019, accreditation certificates were issued by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (based on the decision of the Accreditation Commission), and since 2019, by the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance. Accreditation of educational programs offered in Ukraine can also be done by an recognized independent or foreign accreditation agency for quality assurance in higher education (List of foreign accreditation and quality assurance in higher education agencies, certificates of which are recognized in Ukraine).
Higher education institutions develop educational programs at each licensed level of higher education in accordance with the higher education standards approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. And before 2021, the higher education institutions developed programs only for licensed specialties. Within one specialty at one level of higher education, two or more educational programs can be developed and accredited. The number of such educational programs and their titles are determined by higher education institutions. Educational programs of one specialty may lead to various professional qualifications, developed in accordance with the specialization and learning outcomes (competencies) which should be mastered by students of the relevant educational program.
The state higher education standards describe the requirements for higher education programs at each higher education level and specialty, and are used to assess the quality of higher education system. The standards are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and developed in accordance with the National Qualifications Framework. The standards define the following requirements for educational programs: the ECTS credit load; admission requirements; list of mandatory competencies of graduates; normative program content in terms of learning outcomes; forms of final attestation/examination; requirements for the creation of educational programs and requirements of professional standards (if applicable).
Accreditation is carried out for the first time, typically during the last year of study of the first cohort of students. For the first time, programs are accredited by the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance for a period of five years, and the subsequent accreditations are done for 10-year periods. For accredited programs, higher education institutions have the right to issue diplomas of state established format.
State format diplomas are issued by higher education institutions only for accredited programs. The name of the accreditation body (bodies) is indicated in the diploma, and information on the relevant accreditation certificates and decisions is included in the diploma supplement.
Institutional accreditation
Accreditation of higher education institutions by levels (from I to IV) was canceled in 2014.
In 2017, the Law On Higher Education introduced the concept of institutional accreditation of higher education institutions. However, according to the legislation, the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance shall develop and submit for approval to the Ministry of Education and Science regulations on institutional accreditation of higher education institutions within six months from the date of termination or cancellation of martial law in Ukraine.
According to the Law On Higher Education the institutional accreditation is not mandatory for higher education institutions and will be carried out by the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance.
Institutional accreditation will be optional and valid for 5 years. It will give higher education institutions certain benefits, like extension of the validity period of accreditation certificate of a program that passed the accreditation procedure with the ‘excellent’ status to 10 years, the possibility of simultaneously carrying out program accreditation at different levels of higher education in one specialty (for example, bachelor's and master's), and accept the institution’s assessments of internal higher education quality assurance systems for accreditation of programs. An educational institution will be able to obtain the status of ‘research university’ only if it has institutional accreditation.
Information on licensing and accreditation is added to the Unified State Electronic Database on Education: https://info.edbo.gov.ua/ and is available in the «Реєстр суб’єктів освітньої діяльності» (Registry of educational activity entities).
Read more in Information on the licensing and accreditation procedure in the system of higher education of Ukraine.
This information has been produced with the financial assistance of the Council of Europe. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the Council of Europe.
