After the reregistration of the Ukrainian higher educational institutions according to the Russian legislation in occupied Crimea, students that can’t accept the annexation became more active. However, not many of them know about the possibility to transfer to the mainland Ukraine, in particular, about the fact that terms of the submission of documents for such students have been extended till March 1, 2015. At the same time, almost all Russian mass media announced about the similar suggestion to transfer to the territory of the Russian Federation. What do the Crimean students have to do to get to the higher educational institutions on the mainland Ukraine?
Top secret
After the New Year, Ukrainian patriots, who stayed in Crimea, finally realized the procedure of the “russification” on the peninsula since this exact date was designated as the end of the transition period. The Crimean universities are renamed and started to issue documents of the Russian standard for the students. As a result, the pro-Ukrainian students, who still held to the small motherland, got the desire to move to the mainland Ukraine.
A student of one of the Crimean universities Sergey speaks about problems with transfer:
“The desire to transfer remained but I couldn’t get far trying to realize it. I called the Ministry of Education and Science to the hot line for students from Donbass (mobile phone number) three days in a row but no one answered,” the student says.
From the ten students we asked, only the half heard about the possibility to transfer to the mainland, but no one heard that the submission of documents had been extended.
Nevertheless, on May 2014 the Ministry of Education and Science approved the order №556 on the procedure of transfer of students for studies from the temporary occupied territory of Ukraine. According to this document, students from Crimea could transfer to any institution of higher education of the mainland Ukraine till September 1 of the last year preserving all the forms of studies and all the privileges.
For that moment it was well known about the order of the Ministry of Education: there were publications in mass media, the Ukrainian television was broadcasting perfectly in Crimea, there were press, online media, and Ukrainian communication providers were working on the peninsula.
But the situation changed already half a year later. On November 13, 2014 the order №1311 “On the amendment of the order No.556 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine from May 7, 2014”, according to which the transfer terms for students from the temporary occupied territory was extended till March 1, 2015, was issued.
However, information about that was published nowhere except the websites of the Verkhovna Rada and the Ministry of Education. Although this document was not added to the information section for the Crimeans on the website of the Ministry of Education.
In the Kiev National University named after Taras Shevchenko a methodologist that deals with transfer of students from the occupied territories learned about the extension of the terms from our media.
“Were the terms of the transfer for us prolonged? We don’t know about it yet. But if it’s really so, then, of course, we will accept you”, the methodologist said.
The Ministry of Education confirmed for the web-based media Pod Pritselom that the information about the extension ofterms wasn’t published anywhere besides the official website.
“The indicated orders are mandatory for all the institutions of higher education regardless the form of incorporation and subjection and have been published on the official website of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to be considered by the institutions of higher education and learnt by the general public. Besides that, all year long there is a hot line working in the Ministry, where the citizens can receive exhaustive information regarding the issue,” the Ministry informed answering to the request of the media.
Access area
If you learnt about the extension of transfer terms by some sort of miracle, then you have a chance to get to the needed university. In the counselling center of the Ministry of Education the operation of the order till March and possibility of transfer with all the privileges was confirmed.
“Yes, of course, you can transfer now. The order №556 with amendments has been issued. You need to apply documents till the March 1, but you better specify the exact list of the documents directly at the university you would like to enter,” the operator of the counselling center of the Ministry of Education told us.
In the Kiev National University named after Tarsas Shevchenko we specified the list of documents for entrance. Actually, it almost does not differ from the list that had to be submitted back in March.
The University should be submitted (it is possible to send documents via e-mail): a scanned copy of passport (all the filled pages), mark books (if possible) and also a scanned copy of the application for the submission of application for the transfer with own signature.
It is needed to include information about a receiver (principal), yourself (university, faculty, year of studies, teaching method) and also expose the request to entitle the application for the transfer (where you need to inform: faculty, year of studies, and teaching method).
There is no need to leave the territory of the peninsula to file these primary documents. Request of the application, sent by e-mail, was answered by the Kiev National University within one day.
Transfer problems
As we were told in the university, a student should be ready for certain difficulties because the Ukrainian institutions of higher education don’t have access to the data of the occupied peninsula.
First of all, in Crimea the institutions of higher education started to be renamed and reregistered according to the Russian legislation after January 1 and as a result, both mark books and academic records as well as any other documentation will be issued according to the Russian standards.
Secondly, the Ukrainian system of education lost access to materials of the peninsula after the so called “referendum” in Crimea.
“After the events in Crimea we can’t get information regarding semesters of 2014-2015 academic years. This is why, there can be a problem here: either it will be necessary to complete a lot of additional transfer work, or to enter the prior year of studies. But it is needed to be specified,” the methodologist of the Kiev National University named after Taras Shevchenko deduces.
As it is, students have less than a month of time to finally make up their mind regarding diplomas of which country they would like to receive. The Ministry of Education worked out a procedure, but, unfortunately, didn’t manage to provide an adequate informational support, having completely switched for the coverage of students problems from Donbass. Such absence of the informational policy causes the situation, when the residents of the occupied territories know only about the projects and possibilities of Russia.
