According to the World Bank’s Monitoring Living Conditions in Ukraine: Spring 2026 Update, the estimated proportion of Ukraine’s population living below the national poverty line reached 41.6% in 2025, compared with 37.0% in 2024. The World Bank also reported that real labour income among households in the lowest income quintile declined by more than 30% between 2024 and 2025.
The decline in real household incomes creates significant barriers to equal access to higher education and increases the risk that students from low-income households will interrupt or discontinue their studies for financial reasons.
In response to these challenges, the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (IAPM) continues to implement institutional measures aimed at maintaining academic continuity and reducing the financial burden on economically vulnerable students, particularly those from bottom 20% of household income group.
Graduation Targets
IAPM has established two complementary institutional graduation targets.
First, the Academy aims to ensure that at least 90% of students receiving financial or other institutional support successfully complete their studies. Particular attention is given to students from households in the bottom 20% of the income group across all degree levels, including Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD programmes.
Second, IAPM has established a Graduation Target for students from households in the bottom 20% of household income group to account for at least 20% of all graduates.
These targets reflect the Academy’s commitment not only to widening access to higher education but also to ensuring that economically vulnerable students successfully complete their degree programmes.
In order to achieve these two targets, IAPM sets annual performance targets for:
In 2025, the proportion of low-income students receiving support increased to 97.4%. In addition to financial support, IAPM provides a range of non-financial support services to help students remain enrolled, successfully complete their studies and graduate. These services include access to affordable accommodation in the Academy’s student dormitories, psychological counselling, legal assistance at Student Legal Consultation Center and individual consultations for students experiencing difficult personal, social or financial circumstances. By addressing barriers that may affect students’ academic progress and well-being, this comprehensive support system contributes to dropout prevention and improves the ability of economically vulnerable students, including those from the bottom financial quintile, to complete their degree programmes successfully.
Results achieved against the graduation targets for students from households in the bottom 20% income group in 2025:
In 2025, IAPM recorded a total of 6,082 graduates. According to data presented by the Rector of the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, 92% of the Academy’s students successfully completed their studies, while 8% did not pass the required examinations and were subsequently dismissed.
The reported 92% completion rate exceeded the Academy’s institutional target of at least 90%, demonstrating the effectiveness of its academic, financial and counselling support measures.
Of the 6,082 graduates recorded in 2025, 1,381 came from households in the bottom 20% of the income distribution. These students represented 22.7% of all graduates:
1,381 ÷ 6,082 × 100 = 22.7%
The result exceeded the Academy’s target of 20% by 2.7 percentage points. It therefore demonstrates that students from the bottom financial quintile were proportionally represented among IAPM graduates in 2025 and that the Academy successfully achieved (even exceeded) both its overall completion target and its Graduation targets for students who fall into the bottom 20% of household income group.
|
Student groups by income |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025
|
||||
|
number |
% |
number |
% |
number |
% |
number |
% |
|
|
Students who fall into the bottom 20% of household income group |
1335 |
21,7 |
1456 |
23,1 |
1137 |
23,3 |
1381 |
22,7 |
|
Students from families with middle and high Income |
4821 |
78,3 |
4424 |
70,5 |
2941 |
60,3 |
3755 |
61,7 |
|
Total |
6156 |
100 |
6280 |
100 |
4877 |
100 |
6082 |
100 |
In addition to its target of enrolling graduates from the lowest 20% of low-income households, IAPM has set a target that 98% of its graduates find employment within one year of completing their studies.
According to a survey conducted in December 2025 among IAPM graduates who completed their studies in June 2024, this indicator reached 98.8%.
