On August 11 OPORA published the results of public observation during the admission of graduates during 2011 admission campaign. The OPORA observers worked in 38 universities in Ukraine and responded to the messages of students and their parents about violations in other universities within the 16 regions. OPORA also advised students on legal aspects of the admission process, helped to resolve conflicts and misunderstandings, provided clarification on the legal aspects of the actions of admission boards members through the hotline telephone and Internet. There were totally 2100 requests for free legal consultations to the organization.

In general, the publication of lists of students recommended for nomination, that under the terms of admission were made public three times (1, 6, 8 August), and admission to the budget places passed without serious incidents. One of the key reasons for this was small number of applicants and clearly outlined stages in the documents governing the above mentioned procedures in 2011. So, this year's applicants had better nomination conditions than the 2010 graduates. In addition, to meet state requirements and get a sufficient number of contractors, some universities were forced to resort to means of unfair competition. 

Among the most interesting methods of "unfair struggle" for the applicants are: publication of all the potential contractors in the lists of recommended for nomination , even if the licensed number for some specialties was several times smaller than the number of applications (Rivne State Humanitarian University);  attempt to enroll “budget” students right after the 'second wave' of publication of lists of recommended, so that that if the graduates made decision to take the original documents and go to another university during the "third wave", the young people had to undergo a long-lasting expelling procedure (Sumy National University of Agriculture); publication in the lists of recommended to nomination more people as a "reserve" to enlarge the state demand places, considering the competitive situation (KPI). However, the latter method was used only in prestigious universities, that had no serious problems with graduates’ applications. 

Other incidents dealt with groundless adding of extra points to persons who had no right for it. However, if during the stage of accepting of documents such inaccuracies were justified by human factor or "technical" errors, then during the publication of lists of recommended for nomination, they can be regarded as abuses. After all, it is quite simple to check additional points for winning the National Olympiad competition or Minor Academy of Sciences. The names and details of all winners are recorded in the respective order of the ministry. So, after the intervention of the observer and the withdrawal of accrued points such "contestants" sometimes cannot claim not only to the budget place, but also to study for the expenses of private persons or legal entities (Mykolaiv National University of  V. Sukhomlynskyy). 

Because of unusual competitive situation OPORA revealed some cases where universities have been forced to cancel the admission to a set of specializations that are not in demand among the applicants, after publication of lists of recommended for nomination. Unfortunately, the graduates learned about such changes when they brought the original documents. Such cases were recorded, for example, in Ternopil National Pedagogical University for the faculty of  French Studies and Slavutych department of the National Technical University "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" for the field of "computer sciences". 

Report on public monitoring of 2011 admission campaign (August 1-10) 

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The aim of the project "Public monitoring of the 2011 admission campaign" that is maintained by CN "OPORA" together with the Educational Program of the International "Renaissance" fund and the Program of favouring the EIT in Ukraine (USETI Alliance) is the objective evaluation of the 2011 admission campaign and helping to protect the rights of graduates