What does the new introductory campaign promise?

The process of accepting documents for admission to higher and secondary special educational institutions completed in Azerbaijan. According to the State Examination Center (SEC), this year, documents for admission to universities on 1-5 groups of specialties and in secondary vocational education on the basis of complete secondary education submitted 85.497 entrants.

Of them, according to the I group of specialties, 27490 applicants submitted documents, in the second group of specialties 19641 entrants, in the third group of specialties - 17916 entrants, in the fourth group of specialties - 4922 entrants. Over 15,000 applicants submitted documents for admission to the 5th group of specialties.

The date of the  entrance examinations for applicants of past years has been announced: for the II and III groups of specialties - April 30, and for the I and IV groups of specialties - May 7. As for the current graduates of secondary schools and lyceums, for the date of  exams for them will be announced later.

It is difficult to forecast what will be the current introductory campaign. The government has not yet approved the number of planned places allocated in the country's universities. But, given the tendency of recent years to increase planned places in universities and colleges, it can be assumed that there will be at least 40,000 of them. Consequently, last year's unattractive situation may repeat, when out of almost 83,000 applicants for the competitive stage in the choice of specialties  there left only 38,000 applicants. The plan for admission to universities was fulfilled only by 83% and about 7,000 (!) student vacancies remained free. Almost  by a half reduced a number of first-year students in private universities, some of which later turned down due to financial problems, and not leaving the "coma".

According to the expert on education Etibar Aliyev, the reasons for the serious shortage in private universities are obvious. First, from year to year the higher education establishments raise tuition fees, which is not justified in the context of the economic crisis. Not all families are able to pay these costs. In addition, the quality of training (with the exception of 2-3 universities) leaves much to be desired, which, of course, affects the image of the educations establishment. Thirdly, employers prefer to hire graduates of foreign universities.

However, a difficult situation is expected in the admission  for the masters degree of universities and the National Academy of Sciences for the 2017/2018th academic year. A total of just over 13,000 applications for bachelors have been submitted. Last year  there were  24110 applicants.

The SEC explained  the reason for such a recession - the examinations to the masters degree  have became paid. In past years to participate in testing it was necessary to pay only 2 manats, then this year the process increased. So, participation in the exam  for the masters  and ANAS  at the first stage costs 50 manats, at the second stage - 60 manats. The same attempt for admission to the residency for medical specialties at the first stage  costs AZN 60, at the second stage - 100 manats.

According to independent expert-economist Azer Mehdiyev, it is necessary to correct  the structure of universities and specialties, and it is important to increase attention to the problem of developing vocational education and increasing the prestige of working professions. Today, there is a large army of unemployed with higher education, and this factor will inevitably lead to even more acute socio-economic problems. Due to the low level of training in higher education, many young specialists are not in demand on the market. At the same time, there is an acute shortage of mid-level specialists in the labor market.