Admission Campaign 2026: What Will Change for Applicants and Why the State Final Attestation Is Cancelled Again
The year 2026 will mark another stage in the transformation of the school assessment and university admission system. The Verkhovna Rada adopted Draft Law No. 13650, which definitively states: the state final attestation (SFA) for school graduates in 2026 will not be conducted. As emphasized by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science, and Innovation, Serhiy Babak, “264 parliamentarians voted in favor.”
The draft law explicitly states that the SFA is also not envisaged for other levels of education. This means that the absence of compulsory attestation applies not only to eleventh-graders but also to younger students who traditionally underwent final assessment after grades 4 and 9. In 2026, the issue of final exams for schoolchildren is effectively removed from the agenda.
The decision to cancel the SFA was made in response to current challenges. In the context of martial law and the mass displacement of schoolchildren, the main priorities remain safety and equal access to education.
As Serhiy Babak emphasized, “This is a reasonable and predictable decision in wartime, when the main priority remains the safety and equality of access for every participant in testing, including abroad.”
This position is also supported by the Ministry of Education and Science. Deputy Minister Mykola Trofymenko stated: “We discussed with ombudsmen, with parents, and determined that we will not change the format of the NMT in 2026.”
The Ministry is convinced: the one-day format of the NMT “has proven its effectiveness” since its introduction in the first years of the full-scale invasion, as it ensures equal conditions for all applicants, including those who take exams abroad.
NMT-2026 Format: Structure, Subjects, Rules
The National Multi-Subject Test (NMT) in 2026 will be conducted according to last year’s model in one day with the possibility of additional sessions. All proposals for a two-day format were considered, but were deemed untimely: As the Head of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA), Tetiana Vakulenko, noted, the two-day approach would indeed ease the burden on participants, but the content of the testing would not change significantly, while the organizational risks would be much greater.
The list of subjects for the NMT remains unchanged:
- Ukrainian language,
- mathematics,
- history of Ukraine,
- one elective subject (foreign language, biology, geography, physics, chemistry, or Ukrainian literature).
This means that the system ensures maximum continuity and transparency, preventing sudden changes that could disorient schoolchildren or parents.
An important innovation that preserves flexibility for applicants: the results of the NMT taken in 2023–2025 remain valid and can be used for admission in 2026. This increases the adaptability of the system to wartime conditions and allows those who took the test earlier not to repeat it again.
All described innovations are enshrined in Draft Law No. 13650, which defines the format and rules for the 2026 admission campaign. In 2026, the SFA is not conducted at any level of education, and the National Multi-Subject Test is held according to a one-day model with an unchanged list of subjects.
“In favor” 264 votes, as confirmed by official parliamentary information.
From 2027, a new stage of reform is expected: students of the fourth grades of Ukrainian schools will take the state final attestation in the format of external independent assessment (EIA). The format of this innovation is still being detailed, but the trend is obvious the resumption of final assessments after the situation in the country stabilizes.
Given the current state of affairs in the country the SFA is really not timely. War, security risks, forced migration, problems with access to quality education all these factors make the conduct of large-scale standardized exams or attestations unrealistic and potentially discriminatory. Priorities equality, safe access, adaptation to new conditions. The introduction of flexible examination mechanisms and postponement of the SFA to peacetime allows maintaining a balance between knowledge control and the state’s social responsibility to young people.
The cancellation of the SFA in 2026 is not a weakness of the system but, on the contrary, a manifestation of reasonable flexibility and adaptation to the circumstances in which the country finds itself. The NMT format, which has maintained its effectiveness and accessibility, ensures equal conditions for everyone who seeks to enter higher education regardless of location and life circumstances.
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