The right of access to higher education: Administrative law aspect

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of the current statutory regulation of public relations that develop in the context of citizens exercising their right to education in the framework of admissions procedures for the main educational programmes of higher education. The authors of the article presume that the current subordinate regulation does not meet the requirements of international legal acts guaranteeing citizens access to higher education on the basis of their abilities, as well as the fundamental constitutional principles of legal regulation requiring legal certainty from the legislator, namely: participants of legal relations should be able to foresee the consequences of their actions. The normative provision for the exercise of the right to education is seen by the authors as currently preventing citizens not only from anticipating the consequences of their actions, but also from exercising their rights. The authors substantiate the administrative nature of legal relations between educational organisations and citizens within the framework of admission procedures. The article provides the practice of implementing the relevant provisions of statutory instruments regulating admission procedures on the example of individual educational institutions of higher education. In addition, proposals are made for ways to improve the statutory regulation of admissions to educational institutions of higher education. The authors believe that the key objective of the legislator is to ensure that citizens exercise their right to education, and therefore, exclude unreasonable restrictions of this right expressed in the establishment of the maximum number of educational institutions of higher education to which an application for admission can be submitted, as well as norms that contribute to misleading citizens, including the establishment by higher educational organizations of a minimum number of points confirming the successful completion of admissions tests (admission to the competition).