HOW TO FIND THE BEST HIGHER SCHOOL IN UKRAINE? (DUE TO VERSION OF 2017)
We determined the rating of higher schools pursuant to the score of EIA of entrants and compared the results with our previous rating, which we made in 2011. Ukrainian Catholic University was included into top three leaders.
As in 2011, we assumed that the best higher school is the school, where study the cleverest students.
Of course, such performances as the price of study and high professionalism of teachers are important. Our updated rating of higher schools answers all these questions.
The research was made, based on the data from information system “Konkurs” and data from portal OSVITA.UA.
Please, compulsorily pay your attention to the graph with the number of enrolled persons in table with rating, which is mentioned below, in addition to results from EIA. The more the number of students, the more demonstrative the value of EIA may be considered.
We also recommend correlating the information about number pf application per one place with the number of enrolled persons and results of EIA. The entrants often submit some applications and then, of the lowest passing score allows, choose the strongest educational establishments.
The index “number of application per place” does not account these nuances and it may be high at weak higher school that does not in any way speak about popularity of higher school.
In order adequately to compare EIA from different educational establishments, we separated those higher schools, to which less than 200 students entered (as the limits of error in average assessment in lesser establishments significantly grow). All small higher schools are in separate table (link).
We took into consideration the cost of study as the average value from cost of contract due to the most popular specialties in 2017 – this is “philology, law, management, medicine, computer sciences, tourism, secondary education, psychology, economics, software engineering. If a higher school does not study either of them, we took the average value due to available specialties. Thus, we compared the cost for the same specialties in different higher schools between themselves.
This time we added the indices for development of science to the rating – this is the number of publications and citations in scientometric base Scopus. The more publications a higher school has in editions, which are indexed by international bases, for example Scopus, the more is the probability that a higher school is engaged in science and does not imitate the scientific activity. For table we counted how many publications were made by some or other higher school in 2017 and divided this number by 1,000 entrants. In our opinion, this includes the factor of “great higher school” and makes the assessment more reliable.
If you are interested in Scopus rating as it is, you can learn it here. As it concerns the number of citations, so, we divided them by the number of publications that enables seeing the scientific value of each article i.e. how often other scientists from the whole world refer to some or other research. The note “No publication was in 2017” means that a higher school published no article; however its articles, published during previous years, were cited.
Let’s mention that Scopus is not the only scientometric base, so, if the index for development of science at higher school is important for you, you can seek the chosen higher school in other bases, read the more details, for example, here.
WHAT ELSE CAN OUR TABLE TELL ABOUT
If you sort out the results from EIA (median of EIA) from low to high one, so, you will see the higher schools, which frankly depreciate the higher education in Ukraine. The main feature of such higher schools: they enroll all, who wish. All, who wish, mean the entrants, who cannot pass through EIA at sufficient level. Most private higher schools are included into this category.
The cost of contract in such higher schools is usually critically low. For comparison let’s remind that the cost of study for one student is UAH 26 thousands per year for the state. In fact, it is not much but as you see the cost of study on contractual basis is much less. You will not receive the good quality education for UAH 7-10 thousands a year. Besides, the demand on such higher schools is steadily low: the number of entrants, as you can see, usually does not exceed 50 persons. The exception may be only the central affiliates.
You cannot find the information about cost of study in website of higher school or the cost is mentioned for previous years? This also may be the feature of unfair higher school. In fact, not always. Sometimes a higher school, especially of purely humanitarian direction, just cannot afford to have a professional website administrator and fills it as it can.
About a hundred of higher schools have the unacceptably low number of entrants, 20 or less. Can such higher school provide with good quality study for 2-10 students? This is not even a group. Who are those people, what are they taught and where will they then work?
Judging by indices in table, in Ukraine the things with “international” universities is very bad. The average index of EIA in the absolute majority of them is lower than the average one within the country (138.9); it is marked by red color on the graph. In some – critically low, less than 120.
If you plan in the future to open your own business, you had better not enter any higher school that has the word “business” in its name – they all are in “red zone” due to the level of knowledge at entrants. The situation with different establishments, which are specialized in management and economics, is not much better.
Most of higher schools in Lviv and Kharkiv have the affordable price and not bad indices of EIA. The level of applicants in city Lviv is a bit higher, and the price is a bit lower than in the capital of Sloboshchanshchyna.
Let’s separately mention Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. It is one of the most expensive in the country. Since the time of our previous research UCU rose in rating from the 34th position and now is included into top three leaders.
Ostrog Academy somewhat yield its position (-7) but in any case it remains in to 20 higher schools and has rather attractive price.
