Ukrainian professor O. Bazaluk reports that the Ukrainian education provides for a student nothing more than an illusion of training. As a result the majority of the Ukrainian graduates do not possess even a basic level of professional knowledge when they leave their schools. Due to extremely ineffective educational policy of the Ukrainian government and ubiquitous corruption the everyday life of the society has been significantly changed. The new developed qualities of the social transformation include aggression, rudeness, intolerance, boastfulness, reticence etc.
According to Frances Cairncross (in April 2010) "There are too many small universities, the majority of which are ineffectively governed and mired in corruption. They are not able to withstand existing global challenges." According to Anders Åslund (in October 2012) the quality of doctoral education is bad, particularly in management training, economics, law and languages. He also signaled that the greatest problem in the Ukrainian education system is corruption.
76 higher education institutions and their branches were denied licenses by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2015 because of a perceived lack of quality (education).
In 2017, the highest average scores on the national entrance exam (External Independent Evaluation) were had by students entering the Ukrainian Catholic University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
International rankings
No Ukrainian university has ever been ranked in the Academic Ranking of World Universities nor in the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities. However, the QS World University Rankings 2013/14 listed four Ukrainian HEIs including Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (ranked 441-450), Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (601-650), Donetsk National University and Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (both 701+). In the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (838th) is the highest ranked university, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kharkiv National University and Odessa University (1788th) are (also) ranked in the top 2000, and 303 are ranked lower than that (the lowest is Kherson State Maritime Academy at place 20,942). Four Ukrainian Universities were ranked in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the 2016-2017 school year, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and the Karazin Kharkiv National University, which were all ranked in the 801+ category.
In 2012 Ukraine's Higher Education system was ranked as the top in Eastern Europe by Universitas 21, ahead of Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Russia and Slovakia. The research group cited high Education spending as a proportion of GDP compared to other nations as a likely cause of Ukraine having the best post secondary system in East Europe.
Major universities
Kyiv Medical University of UAFM
Kyiv National Linguistic University
Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics
Kyiv National Economic University
Crimea State Medical University
Chernivtsi University (Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University)
Oles Honchar Dnipro National University
East Ukraine Volodymyr Dahl National University
Donetsk National University
Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute
Kharkiv University (Karazin Kharkiv National University)
Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
National Aviation University
Lugansk State Medical University
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv University (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv)
The National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture
National Mining University
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Nizhyn Gogol State University
Odessa University (I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University)
Odessa National Economics University
Ostroh Academy
Poltava University of Economics and Trade
Priazovskij Gosudarstvenij Texnichescj Universitet
State University of Telecommunications
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University
Ternopil National Economic University
Ukrainian Catholic University
Ukrainian Medical & Dental Academy
Zaporizhzhya National University
Kharkiv National University of Municipal Economy