The accessibility of higher education during wartime is an essential tool for reducing inequality, retaining talent for post-war recovery, and advancing human development. To increase access to higher education amid a deficit in public finances, Ukraine has introduced mandatory Standardised Admission Testing to fairly assess academic achievement and create a level playing field when choosing a speciality and a higher education institution. At the same time, public perception of fairness and equality in university admissions has changed significantly during the war, as our study shows. Its empirical basis is data from a representative national survey conducted in 2021, 2023, and 2025, which included 5123 respondents. As found, young people, both before the full-scale invasion (2021) and during the full-scale war, placed the most trust in national testing, compared to older age groups, including the generation of parents. Besides, regional differences are evident: residents of the West had significantly higher trust in testing in 2021, but trust later increased in the central and eastern regions as well. Across all demographic characteristics, the share of respondents expressing trust increased in 2023 compared to 2021. In 2025, trust decreased significantly. The most consistent differences were observed by age and region, while income and settlement-type differences appeared primarily at the bivariate level or under specific contextual conditions. Thus, higher levels of trust were observed among residents of urban-type settlements and smaller cities, as well as among higher-income groups, although these patterns were not consistent across all models and waves. The results provide partial support for the proposed hypotheses and carry implications for state policies aimed at strengthening equal access to higher education for youth.