Today, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a new procedure for conducting the Unified State Qualification Exam and cancelled previous documents in this regard.
The Unified State Qualification Exam (USQE) is a final exam that will soon be taken by all law school graduates for a diploma. The level of education of lawyers, judges and prosecutors depends on the quality and transparency of this test.
The Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers provides that the new responsible state body for conducting the test in the speciality "Law" is the Ministry of Education … and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Previously, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice were responsible for organizing and conducting the USQE for lawyers.
“The result of this Resolution will be the preservation of the current system of legal education. As a result, we can get two different USQEs: one for institutions in the system of the Ministry of Education, the other for institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
We can also have two test programs for the speciality of "The Law" – the general and the one that takes into account the specifics of universities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Or vice versa – we can have none"
–explains Ivan Shemelynets, the expert in legal education of the DEJURE Foundation
We have previously written about the low quality of education in the law schools of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a single final test for all lawyers was to ensure that only capable graduates receive law degrees.