The head of the inter-factional deputy association ‘Smart Politics’, former speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Dmytro Razumkov (independent) opposes the initiative to revoke the right to deferment from mobilisation for all men over 25 who enrol in higher, pre-higher and vocational educational institutions.
“They say that we have a total shortage of people on the front lines, so they decided to take away the deferral for those who are studying at the age of 25+. Ask yourself how people who are not really studying got in there. Answer the question: who took the money? The next question is: why don’t you expel them if they are poor students? Why are you taking away this deferral from everyone: those who are studying, those who are getting an education, those who will work for the good of our state after receiving their diplomas?” Razumkov said at a session of the Verkhovna Rada on Wednesday.
In his opinion, such a decision could lead to an outflow of these people abroad.
As reported earlier, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, Serhiy Babak, said that parliament could deprive men over 25 who enrol in higher, pre-higher and vocational education institutions of the right to defer mobilisation. Such a bill is currently being prepared.
At the end of 2025, Oleg Sharov, Director General of the Directorate of Higher Education and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education and Science, stated that one of the challenges of the 2025 admission campaign was the creation of unfriendly conditions for those who want to use admission to obtain a deferral from mobilisation.
The Ministry of Education also reported that the number of male applicants over the age of 25 at all levels of education in 2025 had more than halved compared to 2024. According to the materials published by the committee, in 2021, there were 1,196 male applicants over the age of 25 at all levels of education (vocational, specialised higher education, bachelor’s, master’s, postgraduate); in 2022, there were 17,614; in 2023 – 44,042 (of which 19,700 are bachelor’s degrees and 16,400 are postgraduate degrees); in 2024, there will be 112,749 people (of which 7,300 will be in vocational education, 55,600 in specialised higher education, 16,700 in bachelor’s programmes, 26,100 in master’s programmes, and 7,000 in postgraduate programmes); in 2025 – 53,517 people (of which 5,200 will have vocational education, 24,800 will have specialised higher education, 12,200 will have bachelor’s degrees, 9,100 will have master’s degrees, and 2,200 will have postgraduate degrees).
