{"id":1433390,"date":"2026-08-28T16:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-ministry-of-education-and-science-recommended-that-universities-introduce-saturday-classes-will-it-be-mandatory\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T16:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:32:13","slug":"the-ministry-of-education-and-science-recommended-that-universities-introduce-saturday-classes-will-it-be-mandatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-ministry-of-education-and-science-recommended-that-universities-introduce-saturday-classes-will-it-be-mandatory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ministry of Education and Science recommended that universities introduce Saturday classes: will it be mandatory?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ministry of Education and Science has recommended that Ukrainian universities consider holding classes on Saturdays in the 2026\/2027 academic year. The recommendation is related to the need to intensify the educational process and prepare for possible interruptions in electricity and heating supplies in winter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was announced by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Mykola Trofymenko on the air of a national telethon.<\/p>\n

Trofimenko emphasized that the Ministry of Education and Science’s letter of August 20 is exclusively recommendatory in nature and does not introduce a mandatory six-day academic week for universities.<\/p>\n

“Our letter is of a recommendatory nature. Our higher education network is autonomous and determines its own schedules of the educational process, training, work, and methods of implementing these schedules,” the Deputy Minister noted.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Education and Science recommends that universities prepare in advance for possible complications due to the operation of energy infrastructure, air alerts, and other security risks. One option is to consolidate the educational process by using Saturdays for classes in the fall of 2026 and spring of 2027.<\/p>\n

At the same time, universities will independently determine whether they need Saturday classes, which Saturdays will be educational, which disciplines will be taught and in what format. Institutions can also adjust the length of semesters, session schedules, and internships within the framework of the legislation.<\/p>\n

If necessary, the Ministry of Education and Science allows the continuation of the educational process in the summer of 2027. At the same time, this approach is not recommended for graduating students so that they can complete their studies on time, pass certification, and receive education documents.<\/p>\n

In addition to Saturday classes, the ministry advises more active use of distance and asynchronous learning formats. If necessary, lectures, individual assignments, and certain forms of control can be transferred online, while in-person classes that cannot be fully conducted remotely are recommended to be left.<\/p>\n

Universities are also recommended to translate educational materials into digital format, develop autonomous energy supply, take into account the capacity of shelters, and prepare backup communication channels.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine cites the risks of new Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and possible interruptions in electricity and heat supply in the autumn-winter period as the reason for the recommendations.<\/p>\n

Some universities have already started changing their schedules. In particular, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv moved 10 academic days from late November and early December to Saturdays in September, October, and November.<\/p>\n

Thus, the MES recommendation does not mean an automatic transition of all students to a six-day academic week. The final decisions on the organization of studies will be made by higher education institutions themselves, taking into account the security and energy situation.<\/p>\n

By the way, due to Russian attacks, Ukraine has lost over 1.1 million copies of school textbooks<\/a> . The authorities are preparing mechanisms to support publishers to compensate for the losses and provide students with educational materials in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , X<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ministry of Education and Science has recommended that Ukrainian universities consider holding classes on Saturdays in the 2026\/2027 academic year. The recommendation is related to the need to intensify the educational process and prepare for possible interruptions in electricity and heating supplies in winter. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Education and Science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1124328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76875,76878],"class_list":["post-1433390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1433390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1124328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1433390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1433390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}