The State Examination Center (SEC) has announced the results of the admission examination held on February 15, 2026, for master's programs of higher education institutions, excluding the essay. Bachelors, however, are dissatisfied with the difficulty of the exam questions.
Education expert Ramin Nuraliyev, in a statement to Modern.az, believes that the State Examination Center should primarily implement a format change in the master's examination.
In his opinion, the current examination model is not consistent with the essence of master's studies and creates a serious obstacle to the academic development of those studying in humanitarian fields, in particular.
“In the current model, the master's examination is structured around mathematics-logic, informatics, and foreign language components. However, graduates of humanitarian fields chose specialties such as history, philology, sociology, and psychology precisely because they have weak knowledge in these areas. In this case, it is an illogical and unfair approach for these individuals not to be examined in their own specialties at the master's level.”
Ramin Nuraliyev emphasizes that master's study is not a professional or career stage, but the beginning of an academic career. It is a systemic problem for a historian or philologist who wishes to become a doctor of sciences in the future not to encounter questions from their own specialty in the master's examination. Precisely for this reason, the vast majority of graduates in humanitarian fields shy away from the master's examination and do not participate.
The expert also draws attention to statistical indicators. According to him, this year 23,000 people registered for the master's examination, while the state allocated 17,000 planned places. It is known in advance that at least 4-5 thousand of these 23,000 people will not meet the competition requirements. On the other hand, due to specialization density and incorrect choices, an additional approximately 2,000 candidates cannot be admitted. As a result, thousands of planned places remain vacant every year.
“The fact that approximately 3,000 vacant places remained for master's studies last year indicates that this problem is not accidental but systemic. Yet, every year more than 60,000 graduates complete higher education institutions. The fact that only half of these graduates apply for the master's examination is a serious signal and proves that the current examination model is not attractive.”
The expert adds that the issue is not solely related to the difficulty of the questions. If the examination is excessively difficult, the number of those meeting the competition requirements will decrease, and the State Examination Center will be forced to simplify the next, second attempt examination. This is because the planned places allocated by the state must be filled. In his opinion, for a healthy and competitive selection, at least 20,000 candidates should be admitted to the competition:
“At least 20,000 people should be admitted to the competition so that they can contend for 17,000 places. The State Examination Center will be forced to simplify the next second admission examination. The SEC will soon provide information on whether this year's questions were difficult compared to last year's examination. If it is confirmed that the examination was difficult, this necessitates an easier subsequent examination. If the SEC conducts a proper analysis, it should make the next examination easier,” he concluded.
