Georgia Has 28,000 New Students This Year

The results of the Unified National Examinations, officially published on Sunday, revealed that around 28,000 students have been enrolled in Georgian universities.

National Assessment and Examination Center (NAEC) head, Maia Miminoshvili, says that around 39,000 applicants took part in the exams although 41,200 applicants were registered initially.

“According to the data, the situation has slightly improved in terms of participation of students,” Miminoshvili said.

As for the funding and grants, 1009 entrants received 100 percent funding from the State, while 1,457 will receive 70 percent funding and 4,081 will get 50 percent grants. In total, this year, 4,051 students will study at universities for free.

“Over 6,000 students have obtained partial or full funding from the State. More than 1,000 students have received 100 percent grants and their studies will be fully financed by the State,” Mininoshvili said.

The NAEC head added that this year, as a result of Unified National Exams, 1,047 non-Georgian language students became students.

Earlier this month, Mininoshvili noted the high number of university entrants applying to the faculties of law, business and international relations.

She added that among those faculties, which are fully funded by the State, Georgian philology, history and archeology were the most in-demand among the students.

The Unified National Exams for university entrants were launched on July 3 and finished on July 27.

This year’s exams were held in a digital format, which means that those taking the exams received tasks on a computer screen but wrote their answers on paper. Even though students spend many hours in front of a computer, if they don't own a good-sized monitor for work .

22 examination centers were open for the Unified National Examinations 2017 throughout the country, though not in the occupied territories. There were 10 exam centers in Tbilisi, three in Kutaisi and one in each large town.

Thea Morrison