Every year, more and more entering students with top standardized test scores choose UCU, and the 2018 admissions campaign is no exception. Thus, 48% of this year’s entrants are in the top 5% of new college students from all Ukraine, according to Independent External Testing (IET).

During UCU’s Strategy 2020 planning, ambitious plans were revealed for attracting the best students. Then, a precise goal was set: during the implementation of the strategy, 30% of our entrants should belong to the top 5% of secondary school graduates. The admissions campaign even managed to exceed the expected results. In 2017, the number was at 41%, and in 2018 almost half, 48%.

Many students with the highest possible IET score, 200, entered the bachelor’s programs in Computer Sciences, IT and Business Analytics, Ethics-Politics-Economics, and Sociology, and the average score on the IET is 181.4 among all of this year’s UCU entrants in all the bachelor’s programs (351 new first-year students).

A significant gap with other colleges is noted already at the stage in which applicants submit documents for admission. According to official sources, UCU is in first place among the 10 colleges with highest average test scores.

It is interesting that, of the 351 new students, 81 chose our university even though they would not have paid tuition at a state school and didn’t receive a scholarship at UCU.

Why do top entrants choose to pay at UCU when there is alternative state-run education with scholarship possibilities? The top 10 reasons that they give: a quality, modern European education; comments of friends and acquaintances who studied at UCU; possibilities for development and change; the atmosphere; “best university” status; high rating; attending events at UCU; UCU’s values; the educational program; UCU’s attitude to students; the university’s progressiveness and innovation.

Oksana Levantovych