The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has specified concrete deadlines in a letter to higher education institutions during which students receiving state and academic tuition grants must confirm their right to support in the Diia mobile application. The ministry plans to make the first payment for both types of grants by the end of 2026, and the confirmation procedure itself has been updated this year: the circle of recipient categories has been expanded and the criteria for providing support have been clarified. For students who have not yet completed the procedure, time is already limited — for some courses, the confirmation window opened just yesterday, November 9.
Confirmation Deadlines for Different Courses
The ministry has divided the deadlines by study year. First-year students must confirm their certificate for receiving an academic grant between November 9 and November 29, 2026. For second- and third-year students whose state grants are being renewed, different dates have been set: from November 13 to December 3, 2026. Thus, first-year students have a little over three weeks to confirm, while upper-year students have about three weeks starting from mid-November. Missing the established deadlines may result in a delay or loss of the right to payment in the current academic year.
How to Confirm a Grant in Diia
Confirmation of the right to a grant must be done personally through the Diia application using the Diia.Signature electronic signature. This means that delegating the procedure to third parties is impossible: the student must log in to their account, find the relevant section, and sign the confirmation. After all declared students undergo verification, the MES issues orders on granting or renewing grants, which record the amount of support and the procedure for distributing the amount into separate payments. It is these orders that become the basis for transferring funds to universities.
First Payment and Disbursement Mechanism
The ministry intends to make the first payment for academic and state grants by the end of 2026. The agency explained that this year the mechanism for forming grants was revised: recipient categories were expanded and support criteria were clarified. This means that some students who did not fall under the conditions in previous years may qualify for state support for the first time in 2026. At the same time, until funding actually arrives in university accounts, the MES recommends that educational institutions do not apply any negative consequences to students who meet the conditions for receiving a grant due to non-payment of the part of the tuition cost that state support should cover.
University Responsibilities and Important Nuances
Universities and other higher education institutions are required to independently notify students of the deadlines and procedure for confirming grants. This requirement is recorded in the MES letter, and universities that fail to fulfill it may face claims from students who missed the deadline due to poor information. Separately, the ministry reminded applicants who received a recommendation for a budget-funded place but refused it and entered on a contract basis are not eligible for the state educational grant. Previously, until October 25, students who entered a bachelor's or master's program in 2026 and are eligible for a state grant had already had to confirm it in Diia, but this date was subsequently shifted, which led to the current schedule.
