The entry campaign is almost over in Belarus. As reported by the Ministry of Education, only two Belarusian universities did not receive students: 80 places remained in the Belarusian State Academy of Agriculture and the Belarusian State University of Food and Chemical Technologies. However, after the completion of the main enrollment, approximately 400 places remained, and an additional admission was made to 10 universities.
Despite this, Education Minister Andrei Ivanets said earlier that there is no reason to believe that Belarusian universities have lost candidates due to the departure of young people abroad.

Meanwhile, a well-known tutor in physics and mathematics, the head of the tutoring center “100 Points” Evgeny Livyant, on his Facebook page, called the current and previous entry campaign in Belarus a failure: “In my opinion, the university admissions campaign failed for the second year in a row. . What does that mean? there were still vacancies! In most universities there was little or no competition for most specialties. All this means that many students have come to universities who cannot master the university program even for the first year. “

More than 11,000 Belarusian students study in Poland

Meanwhile, many Belarusian candidates preferred foreign universities to Belarusian ones. And there are several reasons for this.

“We do not consider Belarusian universities in the first place, due to the unwillingness to remain in the country under current conditions. In addition, the level of education in our educational institutions has significantly decreased in recent years”, says Natalya (not her real name ). Her niece became a student at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Warsaw, she will study for free as she has Polish roots. “The University of Warsaw is the first in the ranking of Polish universities. If there was no chance of getting there, they would choose another lesser-known university”, observes the DW interlocutor. “My niece has studied the Polish language and culture for a long time, in the future she dreams of doing literary translation.”

Last academic year, more than 11,000 Belarusian students studied in Poland, among foreign students there are only Ukrainians – 36,000, reports Prawo.pl with reference to data from the Information Processing Center of the National Research Institute of Poland.

Belarusians prefer state universities in Poland

“There are more people wanting to leave to study in Poland this year, and this is to be expected given the political and economic situation. Many parents note that the cost of education in Belarus is comparable to the cost of studying in Poland,” says Nadezhda, an official. from one of the educational centers in Minsk that help Belarusian candidates to enter Polish universities.

She also notes that many universities offer significant discounts for students from Belarus and Ukraine: “University of Lodz – 40%, Lublin University of Technology offers Belarusians to study at half the cost.
Some Polish universities have their own competitions for free places for the best candidates. It used to seem like studying abroad was a privilege, but now it’s easy and relatively affordable even for those who don’t have scholarships or a preference for free study, which the Polish card gives,” adds Nadezhda. often chose private educational institutions, now – public universities.

90% of EHU applicants are Belarusian

The number of people wishing to enter the European University of Humanities (EHU), located in Lithuania, has also grown. “Whereas in the 2021-22 school year YSU enrolled 281 students as part of the main and additional admission campaigns, we now recommend 445 students for enrollment in the main admissions campaign alone, 381 people have applied. YSU , but also, of course, with geopolitical factors, with Russia’s war in Ukraine, post-election crackdowns continuing in Belarus as well. This affects the interest of parents and young people in studying abroad in a more predictable geopolitical environment. More 90% of the candidates – from Belarus, there are those who come from Russia and Ukraine”, comments Anastasia Rodionova, head of the communications and development department.

Through August 21, YSU is offering additional admissions for various specialties, some of which are completely new. According to Rodionova, interest in the media and communication specialty grew. “This year, the Faculty of Journalism at the Belarus State University practically canceled the opportunity to enter a paid department and allows you to receive only state-subsidized education – free of charge. This means that independent journalism opportunities will be extremely limited, because everyone the guys will have to do the distribution after university and, most of the time, it’s the media that depend directly or indirectly on the state”, observes Rodionova.

During the current introductory campaign, the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarus State University does not accept for paid education those who would like to engage in television, print and web journalism. Nine “payers” are taken to the “Information and Communication” specialty, where public relations specialists are trained.

“Today, in the development of state information policy, the emphasis is on the development of state media. The budget sheet gives the right to all candidates to enter by competition, respectively, to then be distributed to any organization in the information sector. First of all, of course, for the organization that is the customer’s staff,” commented Sergey Kasperovich, head of the Ministry of Education’s main professional education department, commented on the decision.