Wartime Education: Schools Lose Students, Universities Lose Applicants

© depositphotos / hobbit_art Author Oksana Onyshchenko Editor of ZN.UA Education and Science Department There is an ongoing public debate surrounding an agreement reportedly promoted by the Trump administration. Many believe it could reduce Ukraine to the role of a raw material supplier by granting foreign entities access to the country’s natural resources.

However, an equally serious and often overlooked threat is the risk of becoming a different kind of resource base—a provider of human capital. Even in the absence of formal agreements, Ukraine has long been exporting its future doctors, engineers, scientists, skilled tradespeople, nuclear specialists, and construction workers to Europe and the United States.

Since the full-scale invasion, this outflow has only intensified. ВАС ЗАИНТЕРЕСУЕТ Kateryna Rashevska: “Ukraine should demand not only the return of children, but also the punishment of perpetrators” With the national admissions campaign already underway (as prospective students have registered for the National Multi-Subject Test, a Ukrainian standardized final school-leaving exam), this is an opportune moment to address the issue.

Who will Ukraine’s universities—and the country as a whole—be able to rely on in the future? Through which institutional and social gaps are the nation’s human resources slipping away? To seek answers, ZN.UA contacted local education authorities, policy experts, and Ukraine’s Education and Science Ministry.

Here is what we learned. First, the number of individuals seeking admission to Ukrainian universities has begun to decline. Compared to the pre-war year of 2021, the number of applicants decreased from 230,700 to 202,000 in 2024. The figures from 2023 should not be viewed as reassuring, as the apparent surge in applications was largely driven by individuals over the age of 25 who sought to avoid mobilization through student status.

However, in 2024, legislative changes closed this loophole, which directly impacted the number of applicants. According to Education Ministry data in response to a ZN.UA request, 54,300 applicants over the age of 25 applied for bachelor's degree programs in 2023.

In 2024, that number dropped to just around 4,000. It is clear that Russia’s war has a significant impact on the number of applicants. Many young people are leaving Ukraine, and many have found themselves in occupied territories. Deputy Education Minister Nadiia Kuzmychova told a recent meeting with educators from Lviv that the approximate number of Ukrainian children of school age currently abroad is 2.1 million.

Of these, only 358,000 students are “visible” in the Ukrainian education system, as reported by the ministry. Among them, only 25,000 are graduating students, according to the ministry's response to the ZN.UA request. ВАС ЗАИНТЕРЕСУЕТ Free Fall Of Russian Science This means that 1.742 million schoolchildren have lost their connection to the official Ukrainian education system.

“The second number (358,000) is decreasing every year,” Kuzmychova said, as quoted by the Lviv Oblast Regional Education and Science Department. “Two reasons.

First, due to the natural exit from the system (i.e., seniors), and second, when a decision is made for a child to study in the school system of the host country.” According to Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, in his Special Report into access to education for Ukrainian children and youth from Russian-occupied territories, around 600,000 Ukrainian school-age children may currently live under Russian occupation.

As of October 2024, 44,000 students remained within the Ukrainian education system. This number is declining, as the Russian-installed authorities are doing everything to sever these children from Ukraine, and specifically from Ukrainian education. For the same reasons, few young people from the occupied areas and front-line zones are enrolling in Ukrainian universities.

Although the number of such applicants in 2024 is higher than in 2016–…