The common online-meeting was joined by the President of the Association of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of Ukraine Leonid Huberskyi and the representatives of the Association Presidium, as well as the Heads of regional Councils of the Rectors of HEI of Ukraine, rectors of leading universities, in particular, by Vasyl Moroz, Viktor Yevdokymov, Volodymyr Smolanka, Serhii Bielikov, Mykhailo Chernovol, Serhii Savchenko, Yurii Bobalo, Viacheslav Shebanin, Serhii Stepanenko, Ihor Pasichnyk, Anatolii Vasyliev, Vil Bakirov, Yurii Bardachov, Mykola Skyba, Stanislav Nikolaiienko, Oleksandr Cherevko and Petro Kulikov.
The Head of the Committee of Education, Science and Innovations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Serhii Babak emphasized that universities and the education system in general work in extraordinary conditions. The committee now makes for keeping the financing and development of the universities in every way possible, particularly they reached the ratification of the E5P Fund Grant Agreement (Project “Higher Education in Ukraine”) between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank. As of today, the committee is worried about the enrollment campaign peculiarities in 2020 and believes it reasonable to introduce certain changes in law.
The President of the Association of Rectors of Higher Education Institution of Ukraine Leonid Huberskyi, the Rector of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, thanked the specialized Committee for organizing such an important meeting which ensures the productive conversation between the representatives of different education institutions of Ukraine, and for the wish to learn about the current problems and to help solve them. He assured, “In this very difficult time we work in special mode, ensuring continuous operation of important educational processes, as well as putting all the effort into providing higher education of proper quality.”
“This is a continuation of the productive conversation started by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine during the conference on April, 16. And I, as a member of the Presidium of the Association of Rectors, together with my colleagues joined the active discussion about current problems, which are now very numerous in the higher education institutions.
“One of the important problems is the new rules of purchases and the limitation to 50,000 hryvnias. Some colleagues report that their current purchases have turned into piles of papers the preparation and review of which takes much more time, and the satisfaction of the needs of the institutions is performed with a delay. There are situations when the new procedure have complicated the purchase of materials for scientific activity. This problem requires additional legislative regulations, as providing extended independence to universities have to also include the financial independence, at least with those money that the university earns by itself.
“The problems of new educational programs accreditation are still urgent, and so are the possibility of working with National Agency of Higher Education Quality Assurance in online mode, and the organization of entrance campaign during the pandemic,” Rector Volodymyr Onyshchenko commented.
The Association of Rectors especially emphasized on the possibility for higher education institutions to decide independently in crisis situations requiring decisive and immediate actions instead of continuous agreements.
To conclude, the Member of Parliament of Ukraine Serhii Babak suggested that the Association of Rectors should prepare an appeal to the Committee to generalize the offered actions and submit them to the Verkhovna Rada.
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” has joined the legislative work, prepared and submitted the suggestions to the specialized committee of the Verkhovna Rafa of Ukraine.
The Committee has set the next meeting for April 29, 2020, and it will be dedicated to the consideration and discussion of the suggestion, forming the final decision of the Committee; and the changes of any form will be submitted for consideration to the Parliament.
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
