As part of the memorandum on scientific and educational cooperation between the Poltava Polytechnic and the University of Greenland Ilisimatusarfik, a lecturer at the Educational and Research Institute of Finance, Economics, Management and Law Volodymyr Byba and students Valeriia Shuliak and Valentyna Luhova became the first Ukrainians to participate in the academic mobility program in Greenland.
In the period from April 2023 to August 2023, a scientist from the Poltava Polytechnic together with University of Greenland professor Javier Arno taught a course on business economics and carried out systematic scientific research, and future professionals in economics mastered a wide range of professional disciplines, studying under the academic mobility program Erasmus+.
The representatives of the Poltava Polytechnic returned to the university, shared their unforgettable impressions and talked about the peculiarities of the organization of the educational process and scientific activity.
The educational system of Greenland is focused on the formation of competences of future professionals not as entrepreneurs, but as consumers.
“The proposed training format was extremely interesting, since the economy is studied there not from the enterprise/entrepreneur’s point of view, but from the point of view of the consumer himself: how they see the economy of Greenland, this system, how their payment works, etc.
Out of all the courses we listened to, the most memorable was “Arctic Economy” – an extremely practical-oriented course that helped to better expand our horizons and understand the country’s mentality. The material and technical base of the university impresses with its modernity and multifunctionality despite its location in harsh climatic conditions. Young people have convenient co-working areas for their own use, where young men and women from different countries of the world spend a lot of time, studying and spending meaningful leisure time.
By the way, every day we did not have too many educational classes, but we engaged in self-education, learned about the cultural background of the country. I was impressed by the kindness of the local residents, who constantly offered their help, were interested in where we were from and asked to tell them more about Ukraine,” – shares her impressions a participant of the program Valeriia Shuliak.
In comparison with ours, the organization of the educational process and the duration of the classes are different.
“Lessons started at 8 o’clock in the morning, a class lasts 40 minutes, unlike our academic hour, the teaching was conducted in English. We talked a lot with other students from France, Denmark, Canada, Finland, who also came on exchange and studied economics, psychology, etc. We had an interesting tradition of Coffee & Cake – every second Friday, all students gathered for coffee to talk about themselves and share the cultural features of their country,” – adds Valentyna Luhova.
At the University of Greenland, there is an atmosphere of loyalty to student youth and their rights, but this attitude changes when the time for exams comes – then everyone becomes extremely reserved and takes responsibility for passing the tests. The participants from Ukraine also took the final exam in the form of an essay – students have to write the answer to one of the questions in their own words. An interesting fact: if the volume of work in Ukrainian higher education institutions is measured by pages, in Greenland it is measured by the number of words.
According to the participants of the academic mobility program, the beginning of the summer was very busy with various cultural events. The girls presented national cuisine and talked a lot about the traditions of Ukrainians during the cultural evenings planned by the partners.
“In general, we had two presentations about Ukraine. At the last presentation, we talked about our traditions, customs, nature, and talked a lot about our university. We also told the participants from different corners about the realities of the war, after our presentation the whole hall was in tears. They came to us to express their support, and we already wanted to cry, because it is very hard morally to go through and it is especially difficult to tell others about all this. The Greenlanders didn’t even want to let us go until the end of August. People there are very kind, they smile a lot. We did not expect that we would be treated so well,” – continues Valentyna Luhova.
While the female students studied diligently, a scientist of the Poltava Polytechnic Volodymyr Byba taught the discipline “Economics” for the students of Greenland. There was a huge number of conferences held, participation in which was completely voluntary. Speakers from different parts of the world shared their experiences, developments and talked about the cultural features of their countries.
Ukrainians were extremely impressed by the spatial planning of the capital – thanks to brightly painted houses and sparse buildings, the city space seemed free and easy to perceive. The girls said that they devoted a lot of free time to walking around the famous locations of the city as well as visited many attractions on its outskirts.
The people of Poltava enjoyed the national cuisine of Greenland – they ate whale and dolphin fat and even took part in fishing themselves. However, Ukrainians and Greenlanders have diametrically opposite ideas about the size of fish caught during fishing – the girls watched how fish weighing more than 3-4 kg were easily released back into the sea to grow.
“When we were offered to go to Greenland, we hesitated. The main issue was that we were studying in the fourth year of the bachelor's degree and ahead of us were waiting for the end of the year exams, writing theses and preparing for the UEE to enter the master’s program. The difference between the time zones was 5 hours, so I had to wake up at 3 am for the exams. Because of this, we worked twice as much compared to our classmates, because we studied at two universities simultaneously,” – comments Valeriia Shuliak.
After returning to the university, the students successfully passed the entrance exams for the master’s degree and will continue to master the subject chosen in the bachelor’s degree.
According to them, the importance of such international experience for educational and professional activities cannot be overestimated and, if such an opportunity arises, they are ready to make the most of it. And to the question “Would you like to continue the experience started in other European universities?” confidently answer that they are fully ready for new trips, interesting acquaintances, since bright memories that will remain for the rest of their lives are guaranteed!
The participants of the long-term academic mobility program in Greenland express their sincere gratitude to the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” and personally to the rector, Professor Volodymyr Onyshchenko for the unique opportunity to study, engage in scientific and research activities and represent the Poltava Polytechnic at a high international level. Thanks to intensive international activities, Polytechnic confidently enters the European scientific and educational space, which is confirmed by the success of ambitious young students who have the opportunity to study under academic mobility programs at the best universities in Europe.
It should be recalled that at the beginning of the studies, the participants of the long-term academic mobility program in Greenland shared their impressions of studying and getting to know the cultural flavour of the country.
Recently, Polytechnic scientists took part in the annual AESOP urban congress in Poland, the Polytechnic will cooperate with the Institute of Telecommunications and Global Information Space of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, a meeting of youth leaders of Poltava region was held at the Polytechnic for the International Youth Day, and the heads of youth councils of Poltava region and active students received awards on the occasion of the International Youth Day.
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