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The article assesses the impact of the introduction of indicative self-cost on the volume of recruitment of regional universities (on the example of higher education institutions of the Dnipropetrovsk region, which recruit applicants for education on the bachelor’s degree on the basis of complete general secondary education in the specialty 072 «Finance, Banking and Insurance»). The carried out analysis of the indicators of the admission campaign for the specialty in Ukraine showed that during 2019-2022 the volume of the State procurement decreased, and the volume of recruitment of applicants for the contract increased during 2018-2020, and in 2021-2022 it had a significant decline. This is explained by the implemented norm for setting prices for educational services not lower than the calculated minimum cost of education. The analysis of prices for educational services in the HEIs of the city of Dnipro in 2020-2021 showed that prices for education in accordance with the new system in public universities increased 1.17–2.05 times, with the exception of private HEIs and higher education institutions of agrarian orientation, which is non-profile for the analyzed specialty. In addition, prices turned out to be higher than those of leading universities, which are leaders in recruitment for specialty 072 in Ukraine. The evaluation of the results of the admission campaign in in the HEIs of the city of Dnipro in the context of the introduction of indicative self-cost showed that recruitment indicators decreased in all universities (except for those where there was a significant increase in prices). In addition, the share of the region’s recruitment in the number of admitted to studying according to the specialty in Ukraine has also decreased. This indicates negative trends towards a shift in the preferences of applicants from admission to public HEIs to admission to private ones as well as non-profile universities (usually in a technical direction) due to the lower price of educational services. In addition, as result of a sharp increase in prices in regional higher education institutions, they have lost a competitive advantage over prestigious universities in the capital city. Until the end of martial law, the related resolution was suspended, which affected the results of the admission campaign in 2022, but the reduction in recruitment is associated, in particular, with a decrease in the number of outbound applicants to Ukrainian universities.